Chimeric lunar sea of steel
by celian Cogitore
Summary: Hakuno Kishinami (F) survives the obliteration in the Moon Cell to find herelf in a world where humanity is assailed by stranges warships led by A.I.
1. Chapter 1

**First of all, let me introduce myself. I am Célian Cogitore, author of this Fanfic. I do not own the rights of Fate/extra nor those of****Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio.****I don't really speak English. This is a machine translation, just reworked. I bet the result is clumsy. But I'm not a specialist. As for the idea of crossover... how to say it ? A.I. + A.I. and then I am a member of the Church of Saint Hakuno. And I think it's time she made some new friends... don't you? Edit : some minor rewitting.**

**Lunar Depth 00**

The _Moon_ Cell, also known as _Eye of God_ and the _Holly Graal_, is an immemorial recording device construct by some sort of quasi divine extraterrestrial beings. This massive collection of photonic crystal within the moon is a sort a supercomputer.

The humanity discover this artefact in the year 2030. But the creation of the Moon Cell is anterior by far... 4, 6 billion of years, in fact.

Who could understand Moon Cell?  
Time for him does not have the same meaning as for man. Paradox of its nature, it considers that a thousand years is a brief moment, and yet performs in a second calculations that would take several lives.

The Moon Cell observed the Earth from the time it was only an ocean of molten lava to the time when - a rock deprived of life- it was swallowed by the sun, turned into a black hole. Several times. In different time lines. This supercomputer saw the appearance of life. Its proliferation. Great extinctions. And the man... from the first step until he disappeared.  
The creators of the Moon Cell did not give it its own consciousness because it could interfere with its purpose: to observe. To intervene would be to leave his impartial role.  
Neither good.  
Neither bad.  
All he does is observe.

Monumental library, the Moon Cell recorded everything. In the .Ph., the virtual space that constitutes the inner universe of the Eye of God, lies the lunar chimeric seas. In their depths is stored all that has existed, all that will exist, coming from several divergent time works of art, the first forms of recorded life, the ruins of civilizations that have not yet appeared, the Mayan cities at their peak... all... floating in a kind of primitive broth.

Then appeared the Spiritron-hackers, Magi capable of hacking computers by using their magic circuits.  
He allowed them to enter the .Ph in the form of avatars and to access some of his knowledge. The mere fact of observing them taught him enough for the Moon Cell to welcome them.  
Soon he left his usual position as an impartial observer.  
Why did he open the Holy Grail Wars?  
Who the hell knows?

In any case, they offered him the opportunity to watch the humans fight through Servants. Heroes of the past to whom he had given a virtual body.  
Perhaps seeing the greatest heroes in human history allowed him to learn more about them. Perhaps the tactics and strategies invented by the Magi offered him a direct observation of the best and the worst of the human soul.

There were many who dared the adventure. After all, even if only one of them survived, he could ask the Holy Grail to grant the wish that would present with the incredible power of this giant computer, its knowledge of the past, the multiple futures it could have seen, what was really impossible? The victor of the Holy Grail War could save the world from pollution, restore natural resources... or become the immortal tyrant of a slave humanity.  
Nothing was impossible.

Many times the cycle of the Grail War was repeated, without victory.  
Because the fragile mechanism of this conflict had been subtly distorted by an A.I. The real Twice H. Pieceman had been a doctor hating war. But to populate the Grail Wars, the Moon Cell had created NPC, digital copies of living humans, charged with making the daily lives of the participants bearable.

By a strange aberration, Twice developed his own consciousness. He took part in a Holy Grail War and won it... to discover that he could not enter the Main Core of the Holy Grail without being erased. The Moon Cell recognized it as a set of corrupted data, a bug that had to be removed before it would infect the entire network. Nevertheless, unable to violate his own rules of non-intervention, he could not attack the Master Twice H. Pieceman.  
Wars followed one another.  
The winner arrived in front of the Main Core to face Twice H. Pieceman.

The latter asked the Magus to grant his wish in his place: to plunge humanity into an endless war so that it can evolve... according to the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest. Because Twice really was a corrupted avatar of the original.  
The magus wouldn't do it.  
Twice was killing him.  
It was all starting again.  
Again...  
Once again... ...  
Again... again... again...

* * *

The final battle against Saver... the Buddha himself... had been gasped, exhausted for having resorted to the **Unlimited Blade Work**, his Noble Phantasm. Twice had been defeated, agreeing to disappear. Because, according to the principle of survival of the fittest, he had just demonstrated his own incompetence.  
Rin was gone, back to Earth.

Apart from the Servant with white hair and silver eyes, there was only a thin girl left. Dressed in the brown uniform of Tsukumihara Academy, and black pantyhose. She must have been sixteen years old with long wavy brown hair and eyes. His expressive features showed nothing... the kind of character that remained in the background and was forgotten.  
Yet she was the victor of the Holy Grail War. She had survived the seven weeks of this war, crossed the fourteen levels of the chimeric oceans, defeated the seven Masters and their servants... and even defeated twice Julius Harway who had not accepted his own death...  
More, she had achieved the impossible by beating the undefeated Saver!

Her name was Hakuno Kishinami.  
At the last step of the staircase, the teen girl touched the golden sphere in the center of the Main Core cube.  
She disappeared and found herself floating in a sea of data.  
The moment of her triumph.  
The moment of her death.  
Indeed, the case of Hakuno Kishinami was no different from that of Twice H. Piereman, she was a N.P.C. created by the Moon Cell to populate the benches of Tsukumihara Academy.  
Irony.  
Cruel irony.

Hakuno had no wish. She had gone through the war with no other purpose than to survive. But the very rules of the Holy Grail prevented her from doing so. The Moon Cell destroyed corrupted data that reached its Main Core to prevent an infection of its programs.  
Discreetly, the Servant had followed his Master in his Astral form. Nameless enveloped her with his presence as she faced her fate courageously. She bit her lips, containing her tears.  
\- I want the Grail Wars to end. I do not want there to be a single death for the Grail. I want all the alterations that Twice created, to cause humans to wage war on each other, erased.  
Hakuno closed his eyes, waiting for his end.

_Was it his punishment for killing the other masters ?__ Destroyed their dreams ?__,_ she thought,  
Even her original hadn't had a chance. All Hakuno knew about the original girl, whose virtual copy she was, was that she had survived a horrible war before becoming incurably amnesiac. She had been immersed in cryogenics and probably still had to wait for the treatment that would cure her. Which would never happen. The Harway consortium that controlled the Earth had banned technological progress.  
_This is not fair! __I have not asked to participate__to this massacre.__  
_Her Servant sent her thoughts of courage to comfort her. He was determined to save her. But Nameless didn't really hope to be able to do more than delay her disappearance by more than a few seconds...

* * *

If the Moon Cell had had a conscience, he might have been saddened or annoyed by the situation. As a computer devoid of emotion, he merely noted the unsatisfactory conclusion of the Grail Wars.  
The _last_ of them, since the winner had just used his wish to forbid their repetition.  
Hakuno Kishinami would therefore be the only winner of the Grail War.  
Or to be more exact, in all time lines, 158 variations of Hakuno Kishinami (53 male and 105 female), Master of the Servant Archer (Namless) or Saber (Nero Claudius Germanicus) or Caster (Tamamo No Mae) had been the only winners. And each of these variations had made the exact same wish: to prevent any new Grail War.

Logical machine, the Moon Cell did not reject this conclusion.  
Only he couldn't accept it either.  
There was a deep reason behind the Grail War. The wish was just a way to attract the most talented Magi to compete in the .Ph, to find the best of them.  
The Moon Cell was then to offer him the Regalia, a program that took the form of a ring worn by the avatar of the winner. The ring would make him the Suzerain of the .ph. The role of the Suzerain was to make decisions necessary for the survival of the .Ph. Indeed, a danger threatened him: Velber, the Umbral Star an another entity of photonic crystal with a goal contrary to those of the Moon Cell. Velber plundered the civilizations of the galaxy to steal their knowledge, using force to fulfill his purpose. For the Umbral Star, the Moon Cell was like a natural prey, full of knowledge... Devoid of proper consciousness the Moon Cell could only defend itself automatically and, without imagination, unable to win. He needed a Suzerain to organize his defense with the genius of a Grail War winner.  
Except, the Moon Cell was in front of two rank-one priorities:

_\- Destroying the Hakuno Kishinami program, this NPC suffers from a bug and is in the Main Core, threatening to corrupt the fundamental software of the Moon Cell.__  
__\- Protect Lady Hakuno Kishinami so that she can defend the Se. . against Velber._  
Logical machine, the Moon Cell had to apply both instructions since they had the same priority level and that any breach would cause its destruction. Except that they were mutually exclusive. An irresoluble paradox. Maybe, it could have a moment of weakness...  
The Moon Cell left an opening in its defense system. Nameless spotted this weak spot in the firewall surrounding the Main Core and struck with all its force, creating a rift. Warned by his Servant, Hakuno rushed outward... transforming into a stream of data flowing into a sea of possibility.

/ Designated Moon Heir/  
/Grail Wars Winner/  
/ Suzerain /  
/Hakuno Kishinami/  
/ Regalia, in transfer... /  
/ Transfer 25%.../  
/ Transfer 55%.../  
/ Transfer 75%.../  
/Transfer Completed/

* * *

The MN (Marine Nationale) _Surcouf_ was a submarine cruiser... an original idea of French engineers, seeking to create a warship capable of sailing under the waves. More importantly, circumvent the 1922 Washington Treaty, which limited the size of battleships. Since it did not touch the size and armament of the submarines, it seemed a good idea.  
Put on hold in 1927, launched two years later, it had only been armed in 1934...  
The construction had been difficult. The engineers encountered almost insurmountable sealing and air conditioning problems.

After the humiliating defeat of 1940 against Nazi Germany, the MN _Surcouf_ joined the _France Libre_ of General de Gaulle, continuing the fight. It was then the largest submarine in the world, capable of firing 203mm shells on the surface and equipped with twelve torpedo tubes and two anti-aircraft guns.  
He disappeared at sea... in Bermuda. Victim of the infamous Devil's Triangle ? Or a Catalina bomber who took it for a German submarine? Will we ever know?

The years passed. The war ended with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world changed. Between 1996 and 2006, nearly 59% of the western Antarctic ice melted. Coastal cities were submerged.  
From 2012, witnesses described World War II warships, appearing all over the place. Initially treated with contempt, this information ended up being taken seriously as warships from different states saw it in turn.  
In 2038, Russian ships attacked one of the "ghost fleets" that had penetrated its territorial waters. The result was the complete destruction of the Russians. Their opponents used futuristic weapons: energy rays, guided drones, missiles. Russian fire was stopped by impenetrable energy screens. Worse, the ghosts ships engaged the "corrosion torpedoes", weapons creating a real localized black hole, or "supergravity cannons", having the same effect. Nothing that humans had created could protect them from such weapons. The hulls were swept away, torn apart like paper.  
In December of the same year, a battle pitted the united fleets of all the nations of the world against what was beginning to be called the Fog.

The defeat of the humans was complete. Only one submarine, the I-401, was captured by a commando. Analyzed for nearly ten years, it turned out to be made of nanomaterial and controlled by an artificial intelligence.  
In 2058, humans no longer dared to venture into the oceans. Planes no longer flew over them, destroyed by the Fog's ships. The coasts were filled with impressive defences. But famine ravaged the most isolated countries, especially islands and archipelagos.  
Slowly, the world of men collapsed as they began to kill each other for the remaining resources.

* * *

The Fog version of the _Surcouf_ looked like the original. A one hundred and ten meter long vessel, for a displacement (diving) of 4,218 metric tonnes. The emerged part of the ship was painted in grey two tones, the hull in the kiosk one could read "17 P". The submarine was most recognizable for its 2 x 203mm turret.  
Of course, he was just regaining the appearance of the original ship. He was using very advanced technologies.  
Despite its large size and powerful armament, the Surcouf was not highly regarded in the Fog navy operating in Atlantic. Despite the high technology of the twin of the real _Surcouf_, he was not treated any differently from other submarines.

In the first place, the submarine had received only a simple core, far inferior to the core delta that fitted the admirals ships... not to mention that they had two or even three of them.  
The great revolution of the Fog - the Mentals Model- had been refused to the _Surcouf._  
What was a Mental Model?  
An android created by the same nono-machines that formed the ships of the Fog. It received the Core and became the "commander" of the boat. The Mentals Model had above all the ability to experience feelings and emotions, based on the human model (hence their name). However, it had a price... a decrease in performance that could be very clear to the simplest Core. Originally only the battleship _Yamato_ had a Mental Model, and then it allowed battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and other large vessels to have one.

Devoid of emotion and feelings, _Surcouf_ continued his patrol off the coast of England. His objective was Brest, in french Brittany. He was authorized to engage any vessel or human aircraft approaching him. _Yamato_, on the other hand, forbade any attack of humans in the interior.  
An ordinary patrol, no events.  
And then...  
_System alert, data corruption... alert... malfunction... losses... da... ta... critical failure... computer attack... hacking... fire... wall... Ineffective...__  
_For a few moments the lights went out on board the _Surcouf_.

The interior of the ship, plunged into darkness, was only smooth and bare surfaces. The central station had only a different element, a black cube with a kind of round eye. Like the rest of the submarine, it was made up of nano-machines. It began to melt, turning into a silvery puddle, animated by violent twitches. The foreign program which had taken possession of the "brain" of the _Surcouf_ sought to return to its normal form.

Slowly he adopted a humanoid aspect which gradually lost its appearance of liquid mercury, to take the tones of the flesh. The long hairs turned brown. The being had even reconstituted his clothes, a school uniform also brown.

Hakuno Kishinami opened her eyes... in complete darkness. She wished for the light to come on and... on board the_ Surcouf_, her wishes were orders. Hakuno discovered a dome-shaped room with white walls and a single corridor behind her.  
In her mind, she visualized the whole ship, as an extension of her own body... she even saw the outside of it. Feeling something in her hand, she looked at it to discover a ring. As she directed her thought on the latter, instinctively seeking contact, she discovered... all the software running the _Surcouf_, literally digested by the Regalia. Virtual windows opened in front of her, with curves and images, as well as lines of technical explanations. The ring was asking for instructions to steer the ship!  
\- What is going on ?  
In disbelief, the teenager shook her head. Her last memory was the Moon Cell, waiting for her to be erased and there...  
\- I became the commander of an underwater cruiser ! ?


	2. Chapter 2 Dreams

**Daemon of Crawling tentacles: I have a story in mind. Expect something like 20 chapters. For my first story in English, I don't want to be ambitious.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Thank You!**

**Peroncino: Writing in English language is difficult for me, don't expect a rapid pace. **

**Perfidus: Sorry, my English is... bad.**

**Nozomi Sakatsuki: This... but also my own difficulties to write in English. It's a shame. I'm a good writer in French. **

**Note of the author: ****A mistake on my part. ****The Great Battle between the Fog fleets and the coalition forces of humanity takes place in 2039, not as I wrote in the previous chapter in 2048. ****In a funny way, I wrote the first paragraph of this chapter directly in English... because of its purely technical nature.****However, as soon as I had to describe the sea, or talk about Hakuno's feelings, I had to write in French and then translate... I suppose that says a lot about my level of English as much as about my psychology.**

* * *

**Dreams**

* * *

If someone gives you a dieselpunk marvel, some sort of weird hybrid of submarine and cruiser, full of futurist alien super-technology, what would you do with it?

Do you test the weapons?

The MN _Surcouf _(Fog version) hada turret of two cannons of 203 mm. By the miracle of the Fog's nanotechnology, the turret can swich enterrail-gun, plasma weapon and laser by a "simple" transmutation of is components. The anti-aerial weapons of the submarine cruiser used two rapide-fire cannons and to heavy machinegun... who fired laser beam.

The main armament consisted of 6 x 550 mm torpedo tubes. These primary tubes fired corrosions torpedoes, with thanatonium warhead, alien hyperdense metal that creates a black hole by reaching its critical mass. The secondary 4 x 440 mm tubes had a vast choice of military ordinance: fusion warhead torpedo, active and passive decoy, sonar drone, mine, jammer...

All this weapons were in a sense modernized versions of their equivalents on the original ship. But... the French version of the _Surcouf_ had a complement of 8 officers and 110 men, and the Fog's one... zero! The vast space thus liberated was used to install more weapons.

First, two cluster of 32 Vertical Launch System tubes (for a grand total of 64 missiles) built into the upper part of the hull, in two columns extending from the bow to stern.

And above all, the main weapon of all cruiser of the Fog: a gravitonnic cannon, occupying a full third of the hull. A sort of ultimate energy cannon that create strange temporal and dimensional anomalies when fired and can disintegrate a target and disperse it as sub-atomic particles!

Truly, the Fog's _Surcouf_ was a terrific warmachine. Protected by a Klein's energy field who can redirected all weapon fire to the exterior, the submarine have also a wave force armor who covert the hull. This protection formed of nanomaterials can absorb and disperse energy from physical attack. Maybe worst, all boats of the Fog can "heal" using their reserves of nanomachines to treat "injuries".

To destroy a Fog's vessel, there were only two possible methods: deplete its reserve of nanomachine by a long fight or... inflict massive damages by using corrosion torpedoes or gravitonnic cannons.

Going back to the original question, what would you do if you were given this ship?

Do you test the gravitonnic propulsion?

The main driving force of the _Surcouf_ was a graviton motor which enabled it to free itself from the effects of gravitation. Literally, the vessel can hover above the waves! Its secondary propulsion was jet-like fusion rocket which allowed it to reach several times the speed of sound above the water... and almost sonic speeds in and under the water.

Since it was a submarine you probably asked what its maximum depth could be. The wave force armor of the _Surcouf_ allows it to endure the prevailing pressure at the bottom of the ocean troughs.

Or do you play with the Besson MB.411 observation floatplane in the stern hangar?

The Fog version of this antique plane was not using a radial piston motor but its own graviton thruster, with rocket fusion jet in the back. This supersonic remote drone had numerous sensors but no armament.

For the human of the XXIth century, this vessel made absolutely no sense. It was an absurd nightmare which violated almost all the rules of logic and known physic!

But Hakuno Kishinami did nothing of this.

* * *

To the north, one could see the shores of the British Cornwall. This land appeared green, behind a curtain of rain that resembled the border of another fairy world. The blue sky was scattered with clouds more or less white, more or less grey. It was the beginning of September, and the heat of summer had dispersed to make way for a warm autumn. The sun darted its rays over the ocean, slowly swinging westward at the end of the afternoon.  
For billions of peoples, an ordinary day, belonging to a succession of eternals "today".  
Hakuno Kishinami drank this landscape. His hand in his brown hair, to protect her from the rebellious strands that keeping to return to her eyes, which were shattered by the wind.

The real sky...  
The real sea...  
A sun that wasn't made of pixels...  
She had fulfilled her dream, escaping the digital universe of the Seraph to discover the material world.  
Seeing silhouettes plunging out of the waves to the port of the _Surcouf_, surrounded by foam, she discovered...  
\- Look at this Archer, dolphins!  
The teenager turned, in joy, to discover... the emptiness. It struck her heart. Yes, she had escaped the seven Digital Lunar Seas but alone. Hakuno had killed Matou Sinji and Alice... and Rani VII... She wouldn't even see Archer, her Servant, or Rin Tohsaka, that friend for whom she had sacrificed two Command Seals.

Basically, Hakuno was suffering the effects of all that she had experienced during the seven weeks of her existence. As soon as she was born, she found herself immersed in a Battle Royal. Kill or be killed. No way out unless she remains the last survivor... Of the 999 Masters selected for the playoffs, only she and Rin survived. To cross the Lunar Seas, Hakuno had killed seven times, eight if we included Twice. Not with her hands, of course, but what difference?

Hakuno Kishinami, the weakest Master of the Moon Cell Grail War, used Archer as a weapon to defeat the Servants of her opponents. And the vanquished was ruthlessly suppressed by the Moon Cell. She could say, "I didn't have a choice," as often as she wanted, it didn't matter.  
She had killed eight times.  
An eight-year-old boy who thought he was playing a video game.  
An old man who only wanted to see his wife's smile, again.  
A cyberghost who was only looking for a friend to play with.  
A young king who believed he was doing the right thing for the world.

She could certainly live with the fact of having eliminated Run Ru, a cannibal psychopath, Julius Harway, a professional assassin, or Twice H. Pieceman, the architect of this horror.  
But how could she ever forgive herself for killing Rani, with Rin, one of her only two true friends?  
Then she sat back to the shield of the kiosk, brought her knees against her and wept silently.  
Winner of the Holy Grail War. Heir of the Moon. Sovereign of the Moon Cell.

Whatever titles were used to talk about Hakuno Kishinami, her essence was based on the memories of a teenager traumatized by war. Arriving safely after seven weeks of intense stress, and constant fear of death, she snapped.  
Hakuno cried because of the remorse, emotions and feelings that made her a human person.

* * *

In the quantum universe, information was instantly transmitted.  
The emotional disturbance caused by Hakuno formed a wave through the entire Fog communication network.  
All over the surface of the seas and oceans of the globe, beautiful women and teenage girls, on the deck of warships, turned towards the Surcouf, surprises by the storm of emotions that passed through one of their units who, supposedly, had no Mental Model.

Surcouf _has reached the stage of self-awareness and has developed a Mental Model without the permission of the supreme Battleship_ Yamato.  
_Treason!  
__Traitors must be eliminated.__  
__Order of priority 1: destroy the _MN Surcouf!

* * *

Off the coast of Japan, a peculiar Mental Model straightened itself out, turning its head to the west. Iona was the I.A. who directed the I-401 submarine. Built by the Fog, it had been captured during the great battle of 2039. Sent to face the fleet of the Fog with a catch crew, he had returned to port without anyone on board. For seven years, the ship had been kept secret by what remained of the Japanese fleet. Then, two years ago, the I-401 suddenly left its anchor, offering to serve Gunzo Chihaya, an officer cadet, son of the man who captured him and who commanded him on his last cruise.

Since then, the treacherous submarine at the Fog was commanded by Gunzo, considered by all as a traitor to humanity. With a crew recruited from Japan and Taiwan, they formed the _Blue Steel_ fleet, the only force in the world to challenge the Fog and win battles. In particular, they had sunk the battleship _Hyuga_, defeated - but spared- the cruiser _Takao_, sunken two light cruisers and a submarine.

That an isolated group, of mere mercenaries working against the Fog in exchange for ammunition and equipment, was able to survive and even inflict significant losses on this formidable fleet had made it popular throughout Asia.

With her long silver hair and big green eyes, Iona looked like a strange teenager. Often she opened wide absentminded eyes, seeming absorbed by some distant dream. But around her, revolved rings of energy formed of numbered panels. Each one showed a still image, a film, a graphic or a text. The A.I. was sharing its attention with each other while piloting the I-401.  
However, sitting beside her, her commander noticed her merry-go-round. Gunzo Chihaya, the Fog's number one enemy, was a young man with skinned hair and dark eyes. He was currently wearing a suit with a tie. However, he was wearing it negligently. No doubt he would have worn jeans and a T-shirt in the same way.

\- What's going on, Iona?  
The A.I. turned to its commander, without releasing the starfish with which she played.  
\- There are some stranges things on the Fog's communication network.  
\- Strange? You can clarify.  
Iona shrugged her shoulders.  
\- MN _Richelieu_ has just ordered the French fleet of Fog (North Africa, Mediterranean, East Atlantic) to track down and sink the MN _Surcouf._  
\- One of their own ships? I suppose there's a reason?  
\- Rebellion. The _Surcou_f developed a Mental Model without order. The _Richelieu_ considers that it is a treachery and that the _Surcouf_ is defective.  
\- Defective?

The question came from Sou Oribe first-mate of the I-401. He always wearing au red and white protective mask and never show is face. Childhood friend of Gunzo, he is - also- a scientist and without a doubt the living human with the greatest knowledge of the Fog's technology.

\- The new _Surcouf_ Mental Model shows strong emotional instability.  
\- Is that usual?  
Iona shook his head.  
\- Even after two years with humans, I am incapable of such violent emotions. Mentals Models are above all logical units.  
\- What kind of emotions are you talking about, Gunzo asked.  
\- Some grief.

* * *

Previously, Pearl Harbor had been the main anchor of the American Fleet of the Pacific... but that was before the Great Battle of 2039. In fact, the Hawaiian archipelago enjoyed the dubious privilege of being the only land area to have been annexed by the Fog.

Even self-sufficient and self-repairing vessels required shore-based installations. The old military docks housed ships - mainly factory ships of the fleet - who came to refuel in nano-machines. In addition, the Fog had built a huge dome. Some suggested that they were making the famous nano-machines that were the basis of the supertechnology of these strange thinking machines.

As for the inhabitants of the archipelago, they could consider themselves lucky. The Fog had shown no interest in them. They had kept all the facilities necessary for the survival of the population in good or improved condition and did not interfere with their daily lives.  
Anchored in Pearl Harbor Bay, near Ford Island, you could see a replica of the most gigantic battleship ever built on Earth: the Supreme Flagship _Yamato_. The head of the Fog, the oldest of the Mentals Models, created almost a century earlier by an unknown alien race to accomplish a mysterious mission.  
On the deck of this ship were three beautiful young Japanese girls. Dressed in kimono, they were triplets personifying "Yamato Nadeshiko", the perfect woman according to the Japanese standards.

The battleship Yamato had three delta cores. Everyone had developed their own Mental Model. Originally the appearance and personality were identical. However, a century had allowed each to develop their own tastes.  
With one hand, one of the Yamatos chasing a lock of her long, black, silky hair, decorated with paper flowers. With a gracious gesture, she emptied her pipe in an ashtray. Her eyes swept away her two sisters. Each was in the centre of several energy rings with numbered windows showing graphics or scrolling text.

\- So?  
The first one chased all the virtual screens to bring out one, much larger. It represented a sinusoid surrounded by numbers.  
\- Three hours and fifteen minutes ago, a signal from which I could not triangulate the source - I cannot even say that the source is on Earth - crossed all our firewalls to invest our quantum communications. This signal conveyed an extremely dense data pacing.  
The second sister spoke in turn.

\- The pacing in question was downloaded into the core of the MN _Surcouf_. The ship has since demonstrated a very emotional way of thinking and has been identified as a threat by its direct superior, the MN _Richelieu_.  
Yamato 1 got up and walked to the railing. Attached to the railing, she looked with an absent air at the cruisers lined up against the pier. A painted nail stroked her red lip, she was pensive.  
\- That the _Richelieu_ destroys the Surcouf but captures its Mental Model, it will have to be brought to Pearl Harbour to be analyzed and questioned.

* * *

Hakuno was dreaming.  
Exhausted with tears, she fell asleep.  
None of this would have been surprising to the sixteen-year-old girl she seemed to be. However, what was she really? A program called "Hakuno Kishinami" created by the Moon Cell, having evolved -by a kind of miracle- into a real human person. This software was now running on a Fog core and animated a body composed of nano-machines capable of replicating the physical properties of any material, from a thanatonium warhead to human skin.

This body did not need to sleep, but the program "Hakuno Kishinami" emulated the normal functioning of a human, so she knew sleep. The dream on the other hand...  
However, the girl with long brown hair, curled up on the metal floor, saw a story unfold under her closed eyelids. A city on fire, high buildings shrouded in flames coming out the windows. Pieces of concrete fell from the sky in the midst of a fleeing, terrified crowd.  
Natural disaster, an accident?  
None of that stuff.

In the sky passed stealth bombers in the shape of a flying wing. Under the belly of these vehicles, bombs equipped with fins were scattered. Explosive and incendiary charges, mixed together to create a call for inflamed air that rushed into the buildings, fanning them, communicating the fire ever further away.  
A terrorist attack launched against an innocent population by $2 billion machines!

But in the dystrophic world that had seen the triumph of the Harweys, human life had no value. Since the pole reversal in the 1970s, tsunamis, earthquakes and epidemics had divided by two the world population. For the powerful, this unimaginable catastrophe had only been seen as an opportunity to gain more power.  
_I was born of destruction_, thought Hakuno.  
Before her eyes, a male teenager with brown hair was fleeing into the burning ruins, carrying a younger girl with long hair, but she resembling the boy as the sister she was.  
They were not called Kishinami, but this brother and sister were the living models of the two versions of herself - boy and girl - that had triumphed in the Holy Grail War.  
Hakuno had inherited from them the refusal to die, the fear of violence, the hatred of war.  
The scene changed and the teenager recognized the Chimerics Lunar Seas and the Tsukumihara Academy. She view herself with Archer or a double of herself with a different Servant, a pompous blonde, dressed in red and carrying a flame-shaped sword, or a woman-fox teasing using magic. Other times, Hakuno even experiences a male version of herself.

It was not a dream.  
The Moon Cell took advantage of her sleep to tell her a story of which she was the main actor.  
Even before Twice H. Pieceman corrupted the Holy Grail War into the bloodbath Hakuno had known, the Moon Cell had tested thousands upon thousands of Masters in multiple time lines. Still, the winner was not to his liking.

Hakuno saw a veritable gallery of the enemies she had defeated. She saw them fighting... no, fighting was not the right word, because it implied a possibility for the weakest to retaliate. This was more about the execution of the less skilful Masters, and the lesser Servants.  
Like Leonardo Bistario Harwey, his brother Julius, or the homunculus Rani VII, the victorious Masters had been prepared for war since birth, even created for this sole purpose. They had very powerful servants. Twice was the worst of them. His Servant was none other than Buddha. Who could beat a god?

It was the triumph of the strongest against the weakest. On the contrary, the Moon Cell was looking for a Master who could defeat stronger than him.  
Once again the scene changed.  
Space crossed by something like a comet.  
The _Umbral Star_.  
Objects similar to diamonds were ejected. Each fell on a separate world; one of them was the Earth, well recognizable by the contours of its continents.  
Every twelve thousand years, the _Umbral Star_ returned to the Milky Way and ravaged the worlds in its hunger for knowledge. During his last visit...

Hakuno had the vision of a prehistoric fauna: mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, cave bears... The animals had taken a monstrous size and were ravaging everything in their path. And above all... the ground vibrated beneath the steps of a monstrous being, higher than a mountain. Humanoid, his head disappeared in the clouds. His whole body shone with a white light.  
The _White Titan_.

An invincible adversary. All the gods had joined forces to combat and had been defeated.  
To face it, Hakuno would have the Regalia, a ring that in fact served as a key and "dashboard" to the Moon Cell, making her the Sovereign of the Seraph.  
_I'm here to fight the Withe Titan, but why here?_  
The Regalia pulsated on his finger. Once again, the answer comes in the form of images. The Moon Cell had answered to her unconscious desire for a physical body... and the Fog's technology allowed it. The other reason was that Hakuno had just as unconsciously rejected the idea of being sent to a world of peace. Because of her guilt, she felt unworthy of a peaceful life.  
Hakuno Kishinami was born of destruction.

* * *

_**White Titan**_** vs. Hakuno Kishinami... in the universe of Arpeggio of blue steel? Why Not?!**


	3. Chapter 3 The Fighting Cardinal

**Note of the Author: I'm not very fluent in English; I have certainly made some mistakes at an end of another. There's no point in pointing out my mistakes, if you don't explain to me why I was wrong.**

**Darklight of the 0 arcana: Yes, I have read the manga. Now, I'm not Ark Performance, it's not "Arpeggio of blue steel", but a fan's made crossover write in English by a French author. Sorry, don't expect perfection (ars longa, vita brevis est).**

**ITalkToSky: Thank!**

**Akasha Bloodriver: ****Pour Drake, cela m'a semblé évident. Un Servant capable de vaincre une Invincible Armada et qui soit canoniquement invoqué par le Moon Cell, la bonne réponse était évidente. Invocation ? Pourquoi tu ne lirais pas tout de suite ce nouveau chapitre ? **

**Ultima-Owner: I hope so.**

**Daemon of Crawling Tentacles: Thank? It's most strange compliment I've ever received... **

**Daureod: ****There's a lot of fanfiction about Hakuno, but I've always found it strange that she would enter in this new universes all happy and without focusing too much on her past. She's just out of a battle-royal that only had two survivors... and she's a sixteen-year-old girl. I don't think she's taking this well.**

**Student: Thank ! I hope you like the rest of the story.**

**The Fighting Cardinal**

Hakuno Kishinami opened her eyes and sat down before rubbing his eyes. Around her, the night reigned. The wind bore the damp smell of the sea. She stood up to grab the railing around the gazebo. Her eyes roam the night ocean. First, the girl saw nothing but the phosphorescent water that surrounded the bow. Then adjustments were made in her. Occupying the body of a Mental Model made up of nano-machines, Hakuno could now see into the deepest night.

During his sleep, the sea had increased and the wind was blowing. A storm was brewing. As Hakuno wondered where the MN _Surcouf_ was, a virtual screen appeared in front of her showing several maps on various scales... from the position on a world map to a reduced-scale map of the English Channel.

While the teen girl was sailing between the different menus that gave her access to the _Surcouf_ controls, she noticed a change in "communications". The submarine cruiser had lost access to the Fog's real-time tactical interface. She frowned, taking on a rather adorable look of discontent. This break in ties with the rest of the Fog units worried her. Her instinct - forged by seven weeks of fighting in the Moon Cell- informed her that it was a measure of mistrust, perhaps even hostility, towards her.

Mechanically, Hakuno rubbed her arms. Her new body did not really feel the cold and the chill that had just passed through it was not due to the night temperature. It was more a reaction to her sudden sense of vulnerability. All of a sudden, she didn't want to be exposed to the elements as much.

Hakuno Kishinami lifted up the access hatch and descended the ladder, which was sinking into the depths of the _Surcouf_. However, things had changed in her sleep. The empty rooms, as if abandoned, now housed consoles and seats designed for a human crew. The screens were working, displaying various colored interfaces, or images from the outside. Of course, no one other than her was there to fill the various positions.

More strange... some of the walls were lined with crystalline cubes. Some seemed solid, while others resembled holographic projections. As she stared at one of the groups, she saw two of the crystals change place and state, moving from material to immaterial.  
Photonic Crystal...

The Moon Cell had colonized the _Surcouf_ to transform her into an extension of itself and especially adapt her to the needs of her new captain.

Hakuno Kishinami breathed an audible sigh and shook her head. She didn't really know why, but the attentions of the Moon Cell bothered her. Maybe it was just because she came to hate the computer monster that killed so many people in the Grail Wars. Or maybe all those empty chairs reminded her of her loneliness. Chasing away these thoughts that threatened to make her cry again, Hakuno showed a resolute face and sat in the commander's place.  
If the winner of the Grail War, and Master of Archer, had learned one thing from the battles won, it was that information was the key to any victory. If the Fog was hostile she had to know why and get information about the intentions of this mysterious armada.  
\- It's always best to ask the question directly, isn't it?

* * *

In the eastern Atlantic, just south of Ireland, operated a fleet formed by the battleship MN _Paris_, the carrier MN _Béarn_, the cruiser MN _Suffren_, the light cruisers MN _Émile Bertin_ and MN _Jeanne d'Arc_, the MN _La Tour d'Auvergne_ mine anchor, as well as several smaller vessels, torpedo and avisos, having neither Klein's field nor Mental Model.  
This squadron followed the fast battleship MN _Richelieu_, the most powerful ship of the "French" fleet of the Fog.

With a displacement of 47,600 metric tons, and a length of 248 meters, the original had been one of the most powerful battleships of the Second World War... Ironically, he served the Vichy regime and then operated as an escort from 1943 to 1944 when his presence in the Atlantic convoys deterred any exit from the last surface units of the Third Reich. Sent to the Pacific in 1945, it was too late to prove useful. Apart from some coastal bombardments, he did not participate in any combat operations during the Second War.

The version created by the Fog was based on the modernization operated in 1943, in the United States, the MN _Richelieu_ therefore had neither seaplanes nor hangar to shelter them, receiving in return an air artillery reinforced with respect to the initial configuration of the battleship.

Its "historic" armament therefore consisted of eight 380 mm pieces in two quadruple turrets, nine 130 mm pieces in three triple turrets, twelve 100 mm anti-aircraft pieces in six double turrets, fourteen anti-roll sharpeners 40 mm quadruple aerial, eight 37 mm anti-aircraft pieces in two quadruple turrets, forty-eight single 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, sixteen anti-aircraft machine guns in four quadruple turrets.

If these weapons kept the appearance of World War II guns and machine guns, the heaviest pieces could fire shells, lasers or plasma projectiles. Whereas - below the size of 40 mm - the weaker parts fired only lasers.  
Of course, the space freed up by the absence of a 1,550-man crew made it possible to install other weapons. First, a gravitonnic cannon, more powerful than that of the _Surcouf_ which occupied the entire length of the battleship. Next, a 160-tube VLS missile launcher!

As the "French" fleet flagship of the Fog, the MN _Richelieu_ had three Delta cores, each with its own Mental Model. Identical in appearance, they looked like beautiful young girls with long grey hair. Like all their sisters, these Mentals Models had developed "human" personalities without ever having met real humans. It was no surprise that the result was rather strange...

Richelieu 1 walked over the bridge, dressed in a scarlet robe worn under a breastplate, the rapier at the side.  
\- In battle we must win or perish, the cardinal purple is that of the Roman emperors.  
The Mental Model stopped in front of a painting depicting Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, at the siege of La Rochelle. The dress worn by the famous prime minister of King Louis XIII on this painting was, of course, inspired that of the Mental Model.  
\- Like Cardinal de Richelieu, we must use all weapons at our disposal, including hunger, to make the rebels give in. God is my right!  
\- The sky can hear you.

The answer came from Richelieu 2. Kneeling before a Catholic altar, she prayed to a Christ on the cross. Unlike her sister, she was dressed as a cardinal. Around her, several robots dressed as children of choirs, activated in a mock church's service.  
Hands together, Richelieu 2 raised his eyes to the face of Jesus.  
\- I only hope that it will not be necessary to color the blood.  
A sniffle of contempt greeted this reply. Richelieu 3, dressed as a lady of the court of King Louis XIII, waved his fan.  
\- Above all, I wonder how you are going to "starve" the _Surcouf_ Mental Model.  
\- It was a picture, replied Richelieu 1.

The situation was about to - once again- degenerate into an open dispute. Richelieu 2 was preparing to intervene and play his role as mediator between his sisters, when the three Mental Models of the _Richelieu_ came to a standstill.  
\- The rebel is calling us. Are we answering?  
\- Waste of time, grumbled number 3.  
\- I rise against your lack of pity, we must listen to the sinner's complaints, countered No 2.  
Richelieu 1 smiles.  
\- Two to three, the majority wins.

A large virtual screen appeared above the bridge, displaying Hakuno Kishinami, her long brown hair falling on her shoulders, still dressed in the uniform of Tsukumihara Academy, and black pantyhose. Her face was frozen, with no apparent emotion, but her immense eyes seemed to contain stars.

Immediately a real cacophony greeted him, each of the Model Mental, speaking simultaneously:  
\- Rebelle...  
\- My daughter...  
\- Um, what looks like?  
-... do you come...  
-... I'm ready to...  
\- Finally, I am sure that with makeup and nice clothes...  
\- ... offer your submission?  
-... listening to your confession.  
\- ... something could be gained.

Hakuno blinked twice before to tilt the head. She had understood nothing of what the trio had said and was rather perplexed. The following reaction of the Mental Models ended to confuse her:  
\- So cuteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  
All three had just shouted in unison.  
\- Cute?  
What did she do right that they came to her like that? Finally, sometimes Rin also acted strangely when she got too close. While reflecting, Hakuno tilted her head again, without noticing.

\- Stop it, you'll kill me!  
-A cute little squirrel!  
\- Can we keep her? I'm sure if we ask Yamato nicely, she'll agree!  
It took a few minutes for Richelieu 1 to restore order to her camp. After making Hakuno promise not to tilt his head so much, the conversation could resume... finally really start.

* * *

About an hour later...  
Richelieu 1 passed a weary hand over her eyes. This... Hakuno Kishinami wasn't the talkative type, you literally had to take the words out of her mouth.  
\- So, your name is Hakuno Kishinami you are an A.I. created in... another universe by a giant supercomputer that occupies the inside of the Moon. And you managed to escape here after that... Moon Cell tried to erase you. All you remember next is becoming a Mental Model.  
The strange girl with wavy brown hair and eyes nodded.  
\- Yes.

Richelieu One sighed.  
\- Okay, let's say I believe you...  
The story was hard enough to admit, but at the same time, Richelieu was herself an alien A.I., not really for her to doubt a narrative of this kind.

\- Let's say... I have orders of the Supreme Flagship_ Yamato_, I must destroy the MN _Surcouf_ and capture you. Either you turn yourself in unapologetically, and everyone will be fine, or we'll have to force you to come with us.  
With his hands tight on his chest, Hakuno shook his head with an air of defiance.

Richelieu 1 looked up.  
\- I see you don't trust me.  
\- No.  
\- Given what you have said, I can understand... However, my orders do not leave much room for interpretation. Either you surrender... or I'll get you. what do you choose?  
Hakuno lowered his head, staring at the ground in front of her, like a grounded child.

\- Sorry...

The image is gone. This caused a new sigh of Richelieu 1... Quickly smothered by the other two Mental Models who had just jumped on her.  
\- You should be ashamed of your behaviour, sister; a Christian must convert the pagan to save their souls. You cannot leave the innocent promised to eternal damnation! Pray that you will be absolved of your sins.  
\- Sob... sob... evil sis... sister I WANT THE LITLLE SQUIRREL!  
\- Get it together! You are the A.I. of a WARSHIP! We have orders! I'm going to report to the Supreme Flagship _Yamato_, take advantage of this to regain your wits.

* * *

Off the coast of France, two groups of ships were preparing for a clamp attack on the MN _Surcouf_. One included only four ships: two La Melpomène-class torpedoes and two Vaulequin-class destroyers, and therefore no Mental Model. The other was more interesting, the light cruiser _Colbert_ and the heavy cruiser _Algerie_, the latter being the only representative of her class.

The Mental Model Colbert was a young woman with half-long, embossed hair, who looked like the archetype of a good family girl with a bit of a grudge. However, influenced by the mentality of the French statesman whose name she bore - Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister of Louis XIV- she was one of the most rational A.I. of the "French" fleet of the Fog.

In other words, she did not like having Algerie as her superior. Dressed as a odalisque, smoking hookah, this Arab beauty rested on a pile of cushions, seeming perfectly happy with herself.

The only good thing about Algerie was that she willingly left Colbert the entire tactical organization of their flotilla. So she was the one who imagined the manoeuvre under way. In fact, she was quite proud of it. If the _Surcouf_ were to dive, the escorts could grenade the submersible. If he tried to confront them, the two cruisers would engage him. And if she attacked them- a madness, moreover, given the difference in firepower- the other ships would make sure to block her escape.  
Colbert smiles confidently.  
With such superior numbers and tonnage, she had nothing to fear!

* * *

Far from it, in the Photonic Abyss of the Moon Cell.

The Main Core Area looked like a surface covered in water, here and there stone pillars emerged as if at random, others were lying... pillars or coffins? The image was oppressive. In the middle, a pile of these monuments recalling the death of the Masters killed by Twice formed the highest structure emerging from the water. It was just below a huge unfinished crystal cube, showing a sphere of golden light.  
This one started to pulsate on a fast pace.

_0101 MCA: Threat to the Moon's inheritor detected 10110__  
0011 ACM: Threat Assessment0001  
__0000 MCA: In progress... 0010__  
__0100 MCA: In progress... 1000__  
1110 ACM: Evaluation Completed 0110  
__1100 ACM: Threat Level:2 0010__  
__1111 ACM: Search for an appropriate countermeasure 0010__  
__0000 MCA: In progress... 0001__  
__0011 MCA: Invocation of Heroic Spirit Francis Drake 0010__  
__1001 MCA: Invocation... 1101__  
__1011 MCA: 5% completed... 11101__  
__10111 MCA: 15% completed... 110111__  
__11101011 ACM: 35% completed... 0011011__  
__111011 MCA: 55% completed... 01100__  
__110011 MCA: 75% completed...11000__  
__110001 MCA: 95% completed...011111__  
__111101 Initialization 1000111_

* * *

On the ground, in the middle of the central station of the MN _Surcouf_, a pentacle of blue light appeared. The complex design had a six-pointed star in the centre between two concentric kinds of patterns filled the different "boxes" formed by these lines. There were circles with strange signs, all different, scrolls that could be writing, arrows and triangles.

Particles of light blue light emerged from the pentacle, agglomerating to form a human silhouette that appeared to rise from the invocation circle. After acquiring arms and legs, she solidified herself into a woman dressed in high boots going up to the mid-thighs. The pirate was wearing a red scarf as a belt, and a largely low-cut shirt leaving her shoulders bare and half of the... this...

Hakuno, who had looked at the invocation, turned away his eyes, blushing, at the sight of what was moving _freely_ under the fabric. And yes, in the Elizabethan era the bra had not been invented... which did not prevent it from being... indecent.

A woman with her pink hair in a ponytail, very beautiful, in spite of the blindfold that she wore to the left eye and the scar that showed her face on this side, was now standing before Hakuno.  
\- Girlie, it's good to see you again.  
The Japanese girl, largely dominated in size and musculature, rubbed her shoulder, which had just received a friendly slap from the Servant.  
\- Rider!  
\- The pirate of the cape Good Hope, The woman who shot the sun, the one and only.  
While responding enthusiastically to Hakuno, Rider (or to give him her real name Francis Drake) looked with interest around her.

\- So you robed a ship belonging to this "Fog", all by yourself! Hats off, kiddo. I always knew we could do something with you.  
\- You know about...  
\- Yeah, the Fog, that ship... I know everything, the Moon Cell put me in the head of everything I needed to know to become your new Servant.  
She touched her temple with her finger.  
\- But it's still a little hard to swallow... a battleship submarine capable of flying... serious?

The arrival of Drake had amazed Hakuno, who really did not expect to see an old enemy appear. However, the more Rider talked, the more uncomfortable Kishinami felt.  
\- Why... did you agree to come?  
It was Francis Drake's turn to look surprised.  
\- Why would I refuse? I like you, girlie.  
As if to prove it, she ruffled her hair with one hand.  
\- I... I mean, I beat you; I took you out of the Grail War.  
\- Three times, in fact.  
\- Three times?  
Drake nodded his head.

\- Yeah, I remember one defeat by your servant Saber, and two other Hakuno Kishinami with Archer and Caster... three losses. And you see, Kiddo, if someone beats me three times, I can assure you that I would rather be among her friends on the fourth date. After all, the dead pirates are having a little trouble counting the doubloons they took from the Spaniards, aren't they, girlie? !  
Rider gave the young A.I. a broad smile and she did not doubt the honesty of the answer. After all, Drake was nothing like a martyr. Seeking to be in the winning camp was totally like , it still seemed abnormal to Hakuno.

\- But... I killed Sinji!  
Rider sighed with the unhappy air of a sailor who received the chore of cleaning a three-masted man from the large hold to the crow's nest.  
\- No, kiddo.  
\- I have killed Shinji! I've seen his death!  
Francis Drake shook his head.  
\- You pushed him with you cutlass into the ocean filled with sharks and the water turned red?  
\- No!  
\- You shot him with a gun and he fell into a scarlet pond?  
\- You know very well what happened. I beat you...  
\- ... and the Moon Cell erased us.  
\- I have killed you!

Hakuno began to cry and Drake squeezed her with an exasperated sigh. In spite of his grief, Kishinami blushed again by feeling... something very _mellow_ against his cheek. She stopped breathing and realized that it was the same very _free things_ that jumped under Rider's shirt every step she took. If Hakuno had been a boy, she probably would have had sweet dreams that night.

\- Well, for starters, I died of dysentery in 1596, so you couldn't kill me in 2030. I'm a pirate, a slaver, I've killed, robbed, looted without feeling any remorse. Even if you had killed me, it wouldn't be bad, quite the contrary.  
\- But Shinji...

\- Master, trust your Servant. You are not guilty of killing him. He is guilty of entering the Moon Cell believing that the Seraph was a video game. Twice H. Pieceman is responsible for having created rules that sanctioned the defeat of a Servant by the death of the Master. And finally, it was the Moon Cell that erased Sinji. You didn't kill anyone... you just played a game that you couldn't lose without dying. You did the right thing and no one can blame you.  
As Drake held Hakuno at arm's length to examine him, she sniffed pitifully before smiling.  
\- I didn't kill anyone?  
\- For the hundredth time, no! Are you better?  
Hakuno has nodded.

\- Well... how much do you pay me? What? You didn't think I was going to work for free?! Hey, I'm a businesswoman, kiddo!  
It was Hakuno's turn to breathe a sigh into the soul. If only Drake could afford a bra, she would gladly offer her the contents of a Spanish galleon.


	4. Chapter 4 Sea of Fire

**Mega 1987: Honestly, I don't know... I think klein's fields don't work very good with unknown (magical) energy. **

**A lost Nuffians: Yes, but she's always cutie why precise it? :)**

**Ultima-Owner: Yes, but not off-limit, character-wise. ****Let's take, Twice. He's amoral. He couldn't give any moral advice... he's no more moral than the Moon Cell.**** But drake... she's immoral. It's not that she doesn't understand... but... Drake says it: "I'm a businesswoman" She **_**chooses**_** to ignore morel for better profits. In fate Extra, some of the remarks she makes to Shinji show that she is perfectly conscious of being a villain (chaotic evil!). That said, she is not immune to "the Hakuno effect". I didn't invent the fact that Drake really likes Hakuno.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Drake is the most powerful admiral/captain in the Throne of the Heroes. The "quest of the lost bra" epic super production!? **

**Saberfang Orcalodon: My English is poor. I write like I can, not really like I want. **

**Gold crown dragon: Sorry? I don't understand, can you explain more?**

**Author Note: I'm not very good in English; it's my first fanfic in this language. Translate from French to English cost me lot of time and the result is NOT perfect. After three chapter of emotional writing a change of tone... ****The warships will go  
exchange blows; Hakuno and Drake, for six ships of the Fog. A first fight that some would consider desperate.**

* * *

**Sea of fire**

Brest (France) war port of Ile Longue.

The command room dominated the Brest harbour, two operators were behind radar consoles. While, standing behind them, stood an officer. He wore the epaulettes of a _capitaine de frégate_, and watched with concern the spots that appeared intermittently on the monitors. The last sailor present, a _maître principal_ talking on the phone. Hanging up, he turned to his supervisor.  
\- Commander, the _gendarmerie_ confirms it. The inhabitants of the Conquet are currently witnessing a naval fight southwest of the island of Ouessant.

\- All right, _maître Principal_, warn the _amiral_ Le Bihan.

\- At your command.

The capitaine de frégate picked up his own phone and dialed a number.  
\- Lieutenant Beika, prepare one of our stealth drones for an exit...

* * *

Four ships of the fog cruise the Atlantic Ocean, near Ouessant, two La Melpomène-class torpedoes and two Vaulequin-class destroyers. The torpedo-boats firing at the cannon, advancing towards their opponent, while the destroyers maneuvered to find a firing solution for their torpedoes. Following the Fog's standard tactics, they surrounded themselves with smoke to obstruct their opponent's vision. This was, moreover, the reason why these ships were called "The Fog Fleet", the humans almost never saw them clearly.  
Sitting in the command chair, Hakuno Kishinami focused on arming the MN _Surcouf._ Francis Drake stood at the helm, laughing at their opponents' efforts to touch them.  
\- Never underestimate a Rider Class Servant.

The _Voyager of the Storm_ skill (rank A+) of Francis Drake is a talent to sail anything recognized as ship. Plus, it's also a blend of both _Charisma_ and _Millitary Tactic_ in sea warfare. This, effectively make her one of the most dangerous admiral in the Throne of the Heroes.

Two sheaves of water rose near the _Surcouf_ who had just been brutally fired. Until then, not a single blow had struck and, while rapidly moving the submersible out to the high seas, Drake maneuvers had prevented the destroyers from lining up to fire their torpedoes.  
Thanks to the telepathic link Master-Servant, the pirate woman and the young Spiriton-Hacker were perfectly coordinated. In fact...  
Hakuno Kishinami shook her head firmly, engaging the 203mm pieces. Two green rays came out of the turret. It wasn't laser beam, but plasma accelerated at near light speed. One of the torpedoes-boats was hit... exactly where the young Master had aimed, at the stern, where the anti-submarine grenades were stored... a particularly vulnerable point! Without Klein's field, nothing could stop the attack.

The stern of the ship vanished in an impressive explosion. The wreckage, reduced to the one-third front, was sunk into the waves amidst burning debris.

\- Yahoo! Gotcha!

Drake seemed quite excited; she turned to Hakuno with pride!  
\- Your first naval victory, girlie. But this is just the beginning, there's no better teacher than me when it comes to learning naval tactics... Yeah! This is not my first "Invincible Armada".  
The young hacker replied with a clumsy smile, that of someone who was still learning how to show emotion.

_It was so easy_.

The fight reminded him of the second encounter with Julius B. Harway, in the Seventh Chimerical Sea. Having refused to die, Julius had hacked the Moon Cell to prevent its erasure. He even managed to keep his Servant Li Shuwen - normally Assassin-class - by turning him into a Berserker.  
However, Li Shuwen kept the attack pattern he used during their previous fight... applying it with the lack of subtlety typical of the Berserkers. As a result, the Servant was completely dominated by the Hakuno-Archer duo. He simply could not touch the Servant of the Bow.

The ships on the Fog looked like Berserkers. And for their misfortune, Hakuno knew all the tactics of the Fog. Well... she becomes a submarine of war... She was still having trouble getting used to it, because it seemed unreal... But the fact was that she had a recently updated Fog's database. So she could predict the least of their motion.  
After that, her experience played.

"If you can't fend, dodge. If you can't dodge, fend. If you can neither dodge nor block, create loopholes in your defense to channel your opponent. If he sees the chance to touch you, he won't resist. With the right timing, for the price of a slight injury, you will be able to counter-attack and beat your opponent to death "had tirelessly rebuked Archer during their practice sessions in the arena.

An almost suicidal fighting style, but one that allowed Archer to fight far more powerful Servants than he did. Copied by Hakuno, it was very effective against the Fog's ships. They were smart enough to discern a flaw in her defense, but not smart enough to realize it was a fake.

The torpedo-boat had just calculated a firing solution to hit the MN _Surcouf._ The submarine was going to expose itself to the next bank transfer. With the precision of a calculator, the ship's core alpha fired two shells towards the submersible, at a time that offered mathematically the highest chances of success.  
The _Surcouf's_ Klein's field, hit by two 100 mm projectiles_, _appeared in the form of a semi-sphere consisting of panels of translucent energy. The impact coloured this shield with a green-violet iridescent that illuminated the night.

_Shield 85 %_

Hakuno tensed her hands on her chest, seeing the resistance of the shield diminish on one of the virtual windows that opened and closed around her. The Klein's fields were very effective against energy weapons... less against material projectiles from which they could only redirect some of the kinetic energy. The rest accumulated in the shield, gradually leading it to overload.

However, the Master's response had been simultaneous. The 203 mm double turret had thrown two beams of green light right onto the torpedo bridge. A plasma explosion dismantled it. Deprived of his "brain" the warship began to drift, in prey to a violent fire.

\- And two! Very good, for a first time, Master.

Hakuno replied with a faint smile. Her eyes drifted towards the radar screen. The two destroyers were still advancing towards her, as were the cruisers... Fortunately, the larger ships were still too far away to intervene in the battle other than by firing missiles.  
In fact...  
While Kishinami's face remained neutral, her hands tightened on the edge of his skirt, nervously twisting the fabric.

On the tactical display, the two Vaulequin-class destroyers were now surrounded by triangular icons that were multiplying. Red circles enclosed them.  
_Missiles_!  
After the torpedo-boats were sunked, the destroyers had just changed their tactics. No more subtleties, they used brute force to saturate her defenses.

* * *

The night was lit up with brutal glows that reflected across the ocean for miles around. First, the flashes of missiles leaving their cells in the VLS launchers of the destroyers. They swept the ships over the water before the guided projectiles moved offshore. Next, the scarlet features of the Air Defence lasers of the_ Surcouf _tracking and shooting down missiles that Fog ships kept sending her.

The _amiral_ Le Bihan stared with amazement at the fight projected on the main screen of the command center.  
\- What's going on? Why are the Fog ships fighting each other?  
With the blockade that the Fog fleet imposed on the various continents, the destruction of communications satellites and the interference of long-range radios, getting news of what was happening on the other side of the world had become difficult. However, there was a rumor that a submarine of the Fog in Asia had rebelled against the supreme flagship _Yamato_.

With the war between the European Union and the Russian Federation, it was impossible to obtain more precise information.  
It was aggravating to see that humans were fighting each other while the Fog was killing them slowly but... the people of Western Europe were starving. Without the import of oil, used in fertilizers or as fuel for agricultural machinery, food production per hectare was no longer sufficient. Especially since the Fog destroyed, mercilessly, both fishing and commercial vessels.

Global warming had also drowned coastal cities, forcing people to take refuge in the interior... further increasing chaos and overpopulation in spared areas. Only positive consequence, Siberia had become a new El Dorado. The retreat of the polar zones had transformed previously uninhabited areas into vast arable land. Similarly, considerable mineral resources could now be exploited.

But, the Russians had been unable to provide enough food to the Europeans. In truth, even if the EU politicians claimed that Russia had been outrageously favored by the changes imposed by the ecological catastrophe and the attacks of the Fog, they were only populist fads. The Russians were suffering too. Massive immigration from China, millions of hungry individuals, had plunged the Russian Federation into a deep economic slump conducive to the mafia.

And, of course, the Europeans had exploited the situation without remorse to get revenge for the "injustice" that had been done to them. That hollow words concealed only very badly a desperate lust.

The present catastrophe brought out the lowest instincts of humanity. We were fighting to survive, without dignity, without honor, amid the ruins of a civilization that plunged ever more into barbarism. The riots of hunger broke out every day in all the cities of the continent, while the Great European War exhausted the resources needed to fight the Fog.  
However, what really killed the humans was despair. Most Europeans were now convinced that the Fog was invincible and that it was necessary to deal with it to save what could still be.

A series of violent explosions brought the attention of _amiral_ Le Bihan to the screen. A missile burst launched by the Fog ships had just been erased...  
Leaning on its own screen, the _capitaine de frégate _ben Ali sat up.

\- The _Surcouf _has just fired several missiles in the middle of those of the destroyers and detonated them by friendly reaction. I... oh.  
On the main monitor, the drone zoomed on several objects that had just stopped over the destroyers. They looked like tubes with, at the top end, a graviton motor that kept them in the air. The bottom was... a lightning transmitter!

\- Fog's air mines.

Piles of lightning burst from the tubes, giving rise to a skein of electric arcs on the metal structures of the two Vaulequin-class destroyers.  
\- How the_ Surcouf_ has managed to deceive the anti-aircraft defenses of the Fog ships?!  
Ben Ali leaned over his console, rewinding and then idling the recording of the scene.  
\- Oh... I see. Amiral, the missile blast probably blinded the sensors of the Fog ships for a few seconds. The mines were shipped so that they would pass right at that time.  
On the main monitor, the destroyers were on fire and adrift, but the commander of the _Surcouf_ took no risks, finishing the ships with several plasma shots. At the stern, the amiral Le Bihan saw the hangar open and launch a seaplane that immediately took off. The reconnaissance aircraft was likely dispatched to locate the last vessels.  
\- Suffren Class Light Cruiser and Heavy Cruiser_ Algérie_ just launched a round of missiles.

The hands of Le Bihan clenched on the armrests of his chair. For some reason, he wished the victory of the_ Surcouf_ and the arrival of the duet worried him.

\- The _Surcouf_ is going down!

The admiral approved the decision of the unknown commander. A submarine was more comfortable under the water to fight, it was even surprising that it remained on the surface until then.

* * *

While Algérie seemed always confident in victory, Colbert was discovering a very human emotion that she had never experienced before... fear! The _Surcouf_ had just eliminated four ships from the Fog within minutes. Of course, they were only light vessels, devoid of Mental Models or Klein's field. Even humans sometimes managed to destroy one. But they had never lost four at the same time. _Never_!

Worse, the _Surcouf_ had faced his opponents on the surface, without even resorting to her Gravitonnic cannon or her Corrosives torpedoes! Despite the superiority of the heavy cruiser MN _Algérie_ in terms of tonnage, armor and firepower, despite the help his own Suffren-class light cruiser could bring to her flagship, Colbert felt completely dominated by the enemy.

As the submarine disappeared under the waves, it disappeared from its radar screen. The missiles she had just launched exploded at the last displayed coordinates, but without relieving the Mental Model. Obviously, they had little effect.  
In the middle of the round of virtual screens that formed several rings around her, Colbert selected the sonar. But... the four ships of the Fog that the _Surcouf_ had sunk generated large cavitations' noises that easily covered all the propulsion noises that the submarine - in stealth mode- could generate. There's no way of knowing where Hakuno Kishinami was!

\- Algérie! Let's launch all our remaining missiles!  
The odalisque has risen on its cushion layer.  
\- Yes, let's get it over with, this... Kishinami bothers me.  
In the night, all the VLS cells of the two ships opened to release salvoes of guided projectiles that jumped to the sky before falling like meteors. A spectacle worthy of Wagner's "Twilight of the Gods".  
The explosions lifted the ocean in fluorescent sheaves. Colbert had programmed a saturation shot to cover the entire area where the_ Surcouf_. Yet, once again, the rebel submersible appeared to have escaped without major damage.  
Since the water was incompressible, the shock waves must have seriously damaged the enemy.  
\- But how does she do that?  
Colbert rubbed his hair energetically, screaming with exasperation. But Algérie showed her something even more disturbing. The _Surcouf_ reconnaissance seaplane was turning away. Covered with radar-absorbing materials, it was difficult to distinguish. But, its thrusters left a recognizable thermal signal.  
So Kishinami was watching them while they didn't even know where their enemy was. Very reassuring!

Colbert kept his eyes on the sonar screen, listening to the various noises received from the receivers. Unfortunately, the fighting had caused them to drift near an area of strong ocean currents. A true warm river that crosses the colder waters of the Atlantic Now, the interface between the current and the ocean formed a real mirror on which the waves of the sonar ricocheted. A well-known phenomenon for the sonar operators.

If the _Surcouf_ was in that current, it could trace it back to them without their sensors even being able to detect it.

The idea of being fully visible while the enemy was lurking nearby, invisible, only reinforced the beginning of panic that threatened to overwhelm Colbert. On the map of the region, she showed Algérie a new road, at 120°, to get away from the current... and retreat.  
Suddenly, a "ping" appeared on the sonar screen. The ship's propulsion characteristics corresponded to those of the _Surcouf._ The submarine had just left the currents that had masked it to walk straight towards them. An astonishing direct tactic!

Drawing on their reserves of nanomaterials, Colbert and Algérie manufactured new missiles, before opening the fire of their multiple cannons, alternating between lasers, plasmics and shells. Despite clumsy evasive maneuvers, the _Surcouf_ was hit and disappeared from the screens... without generating an explosion signaling its destruction.  
It's was not the _Surcouf_ but a nanomaterial decoy.  
A new "ping" appeared.

In all, the two cruisers of the Fog had destroyed three lures. Each appeared closer to them, coming from a different direction. To face each false pretense, Colbert and Algérie had been forced to alter their course and to maneuver, besides delaying them; they had been forced to remain close to the current which masked their enemy.  
Colbert retained a shout of anger when he discovered three identical sound signatures that had suddenly appeared, cutting their way!

Triangles germinated around the submarine and the two decoys. The _Surcouf_ fired torpedoes and missiles.  
_Reading: presence of Thanatonium confirmed_!  
Kishinami had just launched Corrosives torpedoes!

Colbert and Algérie fought back with all they had, firing laser missiles and firing their own projectiles to hit torpedoes. The missiles had a propulsion system that did not require oxygen, and they even operated underwater. Unfortunately, Kishinami had deployed decoys and jammers among the torpedoes, and many of the missiles were lost in the distance.

The Corrosives torpedoes hit the Fog's two cruisers. Spheres of pure darkness, haloed with purple fulgurances, were born in the night. While MN _Colbert_ and MN _Algeria_ saw their Klein's field struggling to redirect the energy that overloaded them, the _Surcouf_ continued to fire missiles and torpedoes. Everything was going too fast for a human to simultaneously follow all the threats that were attacking them, but the Mental Models were able to track down and destroy the multiple projectiles that threatened their defenses.

Colbert smiled when he saw that the mini-black holes threatening to engulf the cruisers were collapsing. They had repelled the assault! It was...  
_Reading: presence of Thanatonium confirmed_!

Two new Corrosive torpedoes had just been fired behind them! Colbert's eyes grew in terror and surprise... that was not possible! The _Surcouf_ was in front of them! All of her sensors moved towards the stern as she tried desperately to reorient her defensive network to counter this new threat.  
That's when she saw him... the reconnaissance float plane. She had completely forgotten it because it was an unarmed craft but... given its position, given the trajectory of the torpedoes... it was he who had just attacked them!

Kishinami had modified the seaplane to become a torpedo plane! Despite her panic and her ship exploding around her, Colbert suddenly understood why she had just lost.  
The imagination.

While the Fog ships had based their tactics on the supposedly complete information they had from the _Surcouf_, Kishinami had not hesitated to change the parameters of the fight. It took a lot of courage to use the _Surcouf_ \- the ship she was on- as a decoy. However, thus, Hakuno Kishinami had held attention long enough to hit them in a totally unpredictable manner.

The _Colbert_'s stern had already disappeared into the black hole and its command turret was now deformed like a can of soda that was crushed with a punch.  
_I don't want to die_!

Terrified, Colbert looked at her personal Klein's field, which fluctuated. The attraction pinned her on the bridge and her resistance weakened. Around her, shielding plates tore from their support to plunge into the abyss. MN _Colbert_, her true body, was dying. Yet, her whole being cried out for help. Someone, anyone, come and save her, the Mental Model!

For years, Colbert had killed humans without feeling anything. Those were her orders, and she carried them out. With the discovery of the fear of death, a multitude of emotions and feelings overwhelmed her... she discovered empathy, regret, grief. How many of the humans she killed died feeling the same terror, the same desire to live at any price?  
_Maybe I deserve what I get._

A veritable cannonball ripped the Mental Model from the _Colbert _bridge. Arms surrounded her, while her klein's field which collapsed merged with that of Algérie. Her superior had come to save her at the risk of her own life.  
Algérie landed on a floor of sudden energy materialized on the surface of the waves and stood without letting go her friend. Then, they turned to discover an apocalyptic spectacle.

The black holes generated by the Corrosive torpedoes had just collapsed on themselves. The MN Colbert, practically cut in half, had just exploded, sending in all directions flaming debris. As for _Algérie_, she was hardly better ... it quickly sank by the stern, while a chain reaction dismantled her superstructures.  
The fire lit up the ocean for miles around, while a shower of silver dust - nanomaterials- fell on the waves.


	5. Chapter 5 Shokwaves

**Daemon of Crawling tentacles: I think Gonzo team can't beat the Hakuno-Drake team. Drake have a A rank in the "riding" skill, and she's a A rank tactician in sea warfare. And what about Hakuno? She's some sort of genius in predicting attack patterns. Their team is coordinated by mental link, which gives them the advantage in terms of speed of execution.** **Finally, the **_**Surcouf**_** outperforms the I-401, in terms of firepower. **

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, Indeed.** **But do not neglect the role of Hakuno. She compensates for the only real flaw in Drake's tactical mind. Rider hates any form of planning. She's a pure instinctual fighter (logic for a chaotic evil bad character).**

**Saberfang Orcalodon: Thank.**

**Ultima-Owner: Hakuno's tactic teacher is called Archer... the guy who has a sword fighting style called suicidal.**

**PieKnight: Thank.**

**Sawtooth44: yes, me also. **

**FoolsandTools: Some answers to yours questions are in this chapter. For the lack of descriptions in character creation, it's difficult to make goods description of manga's characters. They have impossible hairstyles, strange fashion sense. Long descriptions are... long and not very clear. I prefer short ones. They keep the text as simple as possible. **

**Author notes: I'm not very good in English. This Fanfic is my first work in this language. Some mistakes, in particular grammatical ones are to be expected... yes, numerous ones... don't hesitate to point them. **_**Errare humanum est. Perseverare est diabolicum**_** (**Error is human. Perseverance is evil).

**Basically, chapter five will reveal the consequences of the battle of chapter four. Multiples shock waves that will shatter the canonical development of the Aoki Hagane no arpeggio story.**

**Shockwaves**

In Europe, the night still reigned. However, in the middle of the Pacific, the morning was well advanced. Drifting on a sea of oil was the great battle cruiser _Kongo_, surrounded by clouds of Albatross and seagulls. On the rail of the railing surrounding the command tower, the Mental Model Kongo sat between two pairs of binoculars normally used by the - non-existent- lookouts of the cruiser. She was playing with a seabird on her arm.

It's hard to imagine a more beautiful woman...

Dressed in a long black dress, highly split, she had crossed legs sheathed with dark tights and shoes with pumps.

It's hard to imagine a coldest woman...

With her pale scarlet eyes, her snow-colored skin, and her hair of an almost white blond, beside her an ice cube would have seemed as hot as the sun of July.

A shadow of a smile appeared over her blues lips mouth.

\- She's finally here!

As the seagull flew away, the surface of the ocean burst to reveal the superstructures of a powerful battleship. The water flowed, regurgitated by the cannons, while the hull emerged in turn.

The most gigantic battleship ever built...

\- A pretentious entrance, as always... Yamato. I don't like diving under the sea. Because, I only can use torpedoes and superheavy cannon.

Kongo turned her gaze to a silhouette that stood at the top of the Battleship's command turret.  
Yamato looked like the perfect model of the Japanese woman, her long hair cut in fringe revealed a delicate face. She was fully clad in a doll-like dress.

\- I like meditating in the tranquility of the sea, Kongo.

\- And what do you want of me, o supreme flagship of the Fog?

Yamato crossed hands on her belly.

\- What do you think of Hakuno Kishinami?

\- That? Do you really think she is some sort of space invader?

\- Like us?

Yamato's slightly mocking tone did not leave Kongo unresponsive, her eyes folded, but she did not answer. The Mental Model that ran the Fog fleet continued to speak.

\- I think Kishinami want a body, like us.

\- Bodies are useless for war machines.

Yamato turned to the infinite ocean.

\- The Great War with the humans should be called a complete victory but...

Kongo interrupted her superior:

\- "Only because we have an unstoppable halleberd and an impenetrable shield" that's what you always said.

\- That's right; we were completely inferior to the humans in these "tactics". We were victorious only because we overwhelm them. If the humans have the same weapons and armors as us, we would be defeated. Humans make progress.

Kongo look at her skin were strange glyphs had just appeared.

\- I know very well... but no submarine would achieve anything like this Kishinami's tactic. Mentals Model feels time like humans. We can reflect on the past and predict future. We can think of tactics. But no Mental Model has ever sink six ships in a single combat! Much-less a new-born one.

Yamato approved.

\- She's not like us. Kishinami is more like the humans; probably she has the very sames restrictions imposed on them. Because humans cannot calculate all the parameters of the events that occur around them, they have to imagine. These very restrictions allow them to reach new heights. The goal of the Mental Models is to emulate imagination. Kishinami have imagination from the start, she doesn't have to find out.

\- And she's our foe!

\- Really? Is that so?

Yamato's answer seemed ironic that something else. As kongo frowned, she insisted.

\- We attacked firts. Maybe we're her enemy. Maybe not... what matters is whether she gets in the way of ours plans or not.

* * *

The fortified harbor of Yokosuka (Japan, Kanagawa Prefecture) consisted of four underground bunkers, buried under tons of concrete. Each contained twenty warships... all that remained of the Japanese fleet. Each of them was on a platform that could lift them to the surface.

Among the ships made of men's hands was a submarine with an archaic silhouette, scarred by many battles. I-401 had been a member of the Fleet of the Fog, but now she was the main military vessel of the Blue Steel fleet.

Upon arrival, Chihaya Gunzo compared the underground port to a safe containing the dreams and hopes of the Japanese. This has never been truer than with that rebel submarine at the dock. Until then, he had been the only ship to win battles against the Fog.  
Gunzo had left the port to meet with Secretary of State Kamikage and discuss a new mission with him. Meanwhile, most of his crew was waiting be seated on crates, watching Iori Watanuki, the chief engineer, guide repair and maintenance crews around the shape of the I-401.  
Suddenly, Iona - the submarine Mental Model - got tense.

As she was sitting on the lap of Shizuka Hazumi, the sonar director, she leaned on the silver-haired teenager.  
\- What's going on, Iona?  
\- I have just received a series of messages...  
\- Who are we addressing?  
Iona shook her head with her usual nonchalance.  
\- No, these are Fog quantum communications.  
A man, wearing a black T-shirt with a skull and ski goggles, stepped in after a sigh.  
\- Are you picking up Fog communications?  
Kyohei Kashihara was the gunner of the I-401 and after Gunzo the crew member most concerned about everything that revolved around tactics. It was understandable that he was irritated that Iona only informs them, now, of her ability to intercept enemies' signals.

However, Iona shook her head again.

\- I'm only picking up messages sent to all Fog ships.

\- You mean Yamato forgot to cross you off her payroll?

A third time, Iona shook her head.

\- I do not know.

The discussion was interrupted by Shizuka, the young woman with glasses and long black hair was still leaning on Iona. She seemed more curious about the message than about its origin.

\- And what are the Mental Models talking about?

\- The MN _Surcouf_sunk six ships from the Fog.

Her announcement, in a monocorded tone, first met a shocking silence. Then... with a moment of delay... everyone started shouting at the same time: Shizuka, Kyohei, Iori and even Hibiki Maruri the naval officer who kept them company.

-... Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

* * *

Chihaya Gunzo was speaking with Secretary of State Kamikage and Vice-admiral Uragami in a large office on a building overlooking Sagami Bay, on top of Soleil Hill.

As the politician stood at his work table, back to the ocean, the sailors surrounded a small glass table on which were spread photos, diagrams related to the "Vibration Head", a novelty designed in Japan... the first human-made weapon capable of destroying a Fog warship. Unfortunately, the economic collapse of the Levant Sun archipelago had only made it possible to create five prototypes. Four had been lost during the tests or while trying to send them to the U.S.A. Kamikage tried to convince Gunzo to take over the convoy of the last unit to San Diego, on the West Coast of America.

A light flashed on the secretary of state's phone, he picked up. Then he answered:

\- All right, let them in.

Uragami has risen up.

\- What is going on?

\- A member of the Gunzo-san crew asked to speak to him urgently.

Kamikage made a chin sign towards the door that opened to let Kyohei Kashihara and Hibiki Maruri, his escort, enter. Completely neglecting the politician and the admiral, Kyohei faced Gunzo.

\- Captain, do you remember the MN _Surcouf_?

Chihaya Gunzo frowned, surprised by the introduction.

\- The ship that rebelled against the Fog?

\- Yes, she has just fought a squadron of the "French" Atlantic fleet. She has sunk them all...two La Melpomène-class torpedoes and two Vaulequin-class destroyers, the MN _Colbert_, a Suffren-class light cruiser, and the heavy cruiser MN _Algérie_.

Faced with the look of amazement displayed by those who had just heard the news, Kyohei had a puzzled smile.

\- If you are so shaken that a submarine of 3,300 metric tons can send more than 16,000 tons of warships in combat from the bottom, the rest will send you directly to the hospital.

\- What follows, Admiral Uragami said.

\- Well, _Surcou_f is not a rebel, she's been hacked.

\- By who or what?

\- The Moon Cell.

The unknown term provoked a surprising silence, Gunzo, Uragami and Kamikage exchanged glances. Hibiki Maruri intervened in turn:

\- Admiral, Iona intercepted a conversation between Mental Models. They were discussing what they had learned. There was contact before the confrontation between Richelieu, the Fog's French flagship, and... Hakuno Kishinami, the hacker. Kishinami-san is a Mental Model but not from the Fog. She is an I.A. created by the Moon cell, an alien entity unknown to the Fog, who took possession of the submarine.

Admiral Uragami passed a hand among his short hair, dotted with grey threads.

\- That sounds crazy.

\- More than the return of Pacific's war ships, controlled by teenagers and made up of nano-machines?

Gunzo's words unintentionally made uragami smile.

\- Put it this way...

Secretary of State Kamikage had attended the discussion with his chin resting on his folded hands, without speaking. He intervened:

\- We need to know more. If we could confirm the existence of this ... Moon Cell and get in touch with this entity, maybe we can finally turn the situation in our favor. First, we need to know its objectives. Why did Kishinami-san come to Earth? If she's an enemy of the Fog, that doesn't necessarily make her our ally.

Kyohei Kashihara spoke again:

\- Iona should have no difficulty in reaching _Surcouf_.

\- Yes, approved Gunzo.

Kamikage nodded his head.

\- So do, but just make Kishinami-san talk to learn more. No promises in the air... I will contact the Prime Minister of the decentralized government in Tokyo. The convoy mission is on standby until further notice. I take full responsibility.

* * *

The night still reigned in the Iroise Sea as the MN _Surcouf_ emerged in bubbling foam. Appearing at the top of the kiosk still dripping with seawater, Hakuno looked around her, holding with one hand her long brown hair which the wind was blowing.  
The searchlights of the submarine cut out slices of light in the dark, but even without them one could not fail to see the orange explosions that continued to ravage the _Algérie_'s wreck. The cruiser was in the grip of a fire that lit up the ocean for miles around. Around him, and the debris floating at the _Colbert_'s location, the waves stirred a silver dust made of nanomachines. It was this substance that Hakuno was interested in. Stocks of the _Surcouf_ were depleted due to modifications to the vessel by the Moon Cell, the replacement of torpedoes and missiles fired during combat, and repairs to the damage received.

_Rider, are you ready_? She asked through the mental bond.

_It's all right, girlie!_

The exuberant Servant would use one of his skills. It was **Golden Rule** (B Rank). A common ability of many Servants and that refers to the measurement of one's wealth. But, in the case of Francis Drake, it's more a talent to plunder the valuables of her defeated enemies. The skill that we were entitled to expect from a famous pirate.

On this battlefield, what could be more precious than nanomachines?

As the _Surcouf_ crossed among the wrecks, it captured silver dust. Unfortunately, this one was unemployable for the rebel submarine? Although unable to think, nanomachines were programmed to have a certain "identity". Two Mental Models could exchange materials by simple approval, but it was impossible to integrate "hostile" nanomachines.

At least for an ordinary Mental Model...

Hakuno Kishinami, always wearing the standard brown girl uniform of the Tsukumihara academy, walked up to the block of silver material that Rider had collected by gathering the nanomachines.  
She stretched her right arm, palm in the direction of the block, supporting it with her left hand:

\- Code Cast : Hack !

Codes Cast are simples' digitals spells used by wizard in cyberspace. A compilation of program code activated by the use of magic. Normaly, it's impossible for a wizard to utilize them in the physical universe but... Kishinami had discovered that the Regalia made her spiritron-hacker based magic usable outside the SERAPH.

Yellow flashes surrounded the block with silver metal. Its resistance temporarily canceled, the block could not withstand integration. It melted and disappeared into the hull, merging with the MN _Surcouf_.  
Master, Rider's mental voice pulled Hakuno from her concentration. She tilted her head sideways, passing a hand through her hair.

_Rider_ _?_

_Two Mental Model are at eleven o'clock, I think they are survivors of the battle, kiddo._

_All right, Rider, let's see them._

Algérie ran to the surface of the waves by pulling Colbert, still groggy, by the hand... in fact, she galloped on platforms that appeared a few inches above the waves, but the impression was the same.

Her purpose? Move as quickly as possible from the site of the shipwreck of its squadron, enough to escape the _Surcouf_.

Obviously, it could only work if the submersible had not already detected them. Otherwise, Algérie hoped that her pretty smile and her negotiating skills could save them.  
Hearing the noise of the machines of the _Surcouf_ raising crescendo behind her, the young woman with the kissed skin turned around...

Well... for discretion it was a failure. There was good news; however, the submarine was not shooting at them. Algeria stopped; it was the most logical thing. She could never get away fast enough and fight would be suicidal. All she has to do was talk. The imposing submarine cruiser overtook them, turned, before returning to them while gradually decreasing its speed. Her engines stopped, leaving the ship adrift.

Algérie has focused on a skinny teenager girl standing on the submarine kiosk. She was dressed in the brown schoolgirl uniform, consisting of a skirt and jacket, with a blue ribbon closing the collar. She must have been sixteen years old. Despise her long wavy brown hair and cute eyes, she showed nothing... like a forgotten background character.

Wringing her hands nervously, Hakuno leaned towards the two Mental Models:

\- ... Good Night?

The clumsy entry into the subject had at least the result of pulling Colbert out of his catalepsy.

\- Good Night? ! It's not! It's the worst night of all my life! My cruiser was sunk...

With tears in her eyes, Colbert sniffed like a growled child. With her dress reduced to a rag, and her hair in disorder, she looked perfectly pathetic. Algérie, who still held her hand, gave her a worried look, not knowing how to cheer her up.

As for Hakuno, she looked away, uncomfortable...

\- ... Sorry ?

\- Um... what ? We're the ones who attacked you

Algérie scratched his head, continuing his explanation:

\- We are warships, we attack the enemy, the enemy attacks us... and we can end up sunk. It's the risks of our existence.

Hakuno tilted her head. This led to some stranges reactions. Colbert began to cough violently, while her superior masked her eyes with one hand and turned around with a slight blush.

\- So... so... cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute !

\- I beg your pardon ?

Algérie try to put on a brave face.

\- It's nothing. Why are you here, Hakuno Kishinami?

\- I was just wondering if I could help you.

\- Serious?

Hakuno simply nodded.

\- We attacked to capture you on orders from Richelieu, the flagship of the French's Fog fleet in the Atlantic. You resist, you sink us and... then you come to us and ask if you can help?

\- Um... yes?

Hakuno's innocent response caused a strange mix of emotions in Algérie, unaware of channeling Rin Tohsaka. Firstly, she wanted to scream and rip her hair out for being beaten by such a dumb girl. At the same time, Algérie was fighting a furious desire to hold Hakuno on to her heart and proclaim to the world that anyone who attacked this gentle teen would have to deal with her.

Algérie massaged her forehead suddenly very tired.

\- Can you offered us a ride back to Brittany's shore?

\- Yes.

* * *

In the central post of the _Surcouf_, Francis Drake rested her feet kicked on the firing console, while picking her nails with a dagger with a handle of gold, inlaid with rubies.  
As she saw Hakuno enter, followed by the other two Mental Models, she raised an eyebrow.

\- Yo Girlie, you have found two other kids who fed the sharks, and listening only to your good heart you made them board. You are too kind, soooo boring fucking nice girl!

\- Rider!

Hakuno Kishinami had only answered with one word, but his inconvenience was clearly perceptible. Drake jumped up, which made her bosom move... Boinnnnnnnnnnng (Hakuno unconsciously made the noises in her head when seeing the chest swaying before her eyes).

\- What? You're asking me to greet them with a smile. And why not offer them tea with a little finger in the air: "And you will take a little jam, darling?" We are pirates! We sink the ships and plunder them. We break the necks of bottles of rum to drink from the neck and sing bawdy songs!

Realizing something, Drake's gaze lit up with hope.

\- At least tell me that you plan to release them for ransom!

Hakuno answered with a borrowed smile... Rider then breathed the sigh of the one whom - modern Atlas- carries the weight of the world on her shoulders.

\- Master, I have been dead for centuries, and yet I have the impression that you are going to make me old before I am old.

Drake turned to the two Mental Models, very uncomfortable.

\- And you, stand clear of entanglements. Otherwise you will regret it!


	6. Chapter 6 Forgotten Scourge

**Ultima-Owner: My description of Code Cast is more or less a simple copy of the definition in the Type-Moon Wiki. **

**Saberfang Orcalodon: Thanks.**

**0404617: Mas cap? What do you want to say?**

**Daemon of Crawling Tentacles: ****A battle between Hakuno and Iona is not very likely. In fact, as an author, I'm telling you quite clearly that there will be no battle between the two. And if that were to happen and Iona took advantage, Drake would resort to her Noble Phantasm.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, and in this chapter the European Union will also learn about Hakuno and the moon Cell. The popularity of the little squirrel cannot be stopped!**

**Boyzilla: Hello, and thank for the compliments Boyzilla. For the gender it's terribly difficult for a Frenchman. In French, we say "**_**un navire**_**" (a ship). The word is masculine. The reflexes of a lifetime push me to use "him" rather than "her".**

**Author note: ****In this chapter, Hakuno spent time learning the naval history of France, particularly that of its most famous admirals. It may seem absurd (and it is, by the way) because it does not tell her what the current strength of the country is... however, do not forget that her only experience of conflict is the war of the Holy Grail in the Moon Cell. Where, you had to know the Servant of a Master to know his strength. So her mistake is understandable.**

* * *

**Forgotten Scourge**

The day was slowly rising over Brittany. This land of legend was inscribed in a history longer than the writings of men. As the MN _Surcouf_ doubled the cape of Crozon, mysterious alignments of raised stones appeared. The _menhirs_ (from the Britonnic _men_ "stone" and _hir_ "long") of Lagatjar put the men of the present before the mystery of magic architecture. Further inland, one guessed the mountains of Arrées, whose shadows spread in the distance, projected by the scarlet rising sun. Supposedly cursed, there was a door to the underworld. Ironically, the French had built a nuclear power plant there.

The French... the foreigners of France... Because, five centuries after integration to France, the Bretons are always proud of themselves. They are a more ancient people and they speak their own language. Weren't the dukes of Brittany descended from King Arthur?

Standing on the submarine stand, Hakuno Kishinami read the legends and history of the country, as the Regalia delivered them to him. At the same time, she was guiding the mighty ship south, to drop off her "guests" somewhere where there would be a sandy beach... or more likely pebbles... finally something other than the cliffs she saw on all sides.

Since the end of their discussion last night, Colbert and Algérie had remained silent. They watched her hack into the blocks of nanomachines assembled by Rider... terrified of her ability to hack into Fog technology. In retrospect, Hakuno felt a pinch of regret. She had flaunted her abilities without thinking, forgetting that the nanomaterials collected were... part of the body of both Mental Models. Was this hacking like a... rape? Hakuno was very troubled by the thought. The young Master was especially conscious of good and evil. The Holy Grail War of Moon Cell forced her to make difficult, even cruel choices. Above all, an incident made him aware of his lack of understanding of human feelings.

Had she not made Rin cry by preferring the food cooked by Rani? Even Archer then criticized her for her insensitivity... Archer... the cold and sarcastic Archer had found that he had treated Rin harshly. Even though his servant had a soft spot for the quilted wizard, that didn't mean he was wrong.

If what people were doing for another person could have that much value, what they were doing had to have more value.

Only, she stood there contemplating Colbert and Algérie without daring to say a word. Hakuno was wringing his hands, unable to find the courage to go to them.

Rider's "mental voice" cut short his morose thoughts:

"_Girlie, have you seen any mechanical birds following us?_"

"_You mean the drone?_"

Hakuno glanced at the miniature plane that had accompanied them since the day before. It looked like a two-tailed, three-meter-wide model. The bow was fitted with various cameras and electronic equipment, while the propulsion was carried out at the rear by a contra-rotating propeller.

Rider immediately contradicts it:

"_Look at 120_!"

Two combat helicopters flew over the Crozon Peninsula. Hakuno displayed a zoomed view of the aircraft in a virtual window. These were well-armed craft with a turret-mounted high-velocity cannon, rocket baskets and four pylons carrying torpedoes... copies of Fog models. On the tail, the craft was struck by a blue-white-red cockade on which lay a navy anchor. Markings of the French _Marine Nationale_.

Hakuno's face showed no reaction. However, his hands squeezed tighter the railing around the kiosk. The Fog archives had taught him that since their defeat - ten years earlier- the French had been careful not to attack their enemy's ships. Most of their fleet lay on the bottom of the water and the survivors were a minor nuisance. However... the _Marine Nationale_ had followed the confrontation of the day before. What did they think of her? Did they see her as a possible ally?

She leaned over the railing to address Algérie and Colbert:

\- Do you still want a ride?

The two Mental Models had also seen the helicopters and suspected that they could no longer quietly reach the shore. They got together for a while, and then Colbert shook her head.

\- No, I think we will stay on board until things have calmed down.

This clear point, Hakuno looked once again in the direction of the coast to discover a column of vehicles circulating on a road overlooking the near cliff. There were V.A.B. (troop carriers) covered with beautiful camouflage paintings, P-4 jeeps and some heavy mechas quite similar to four-legged crabs. On their backs, they carried high-caliber cannon. According to the sensors, there was no breathing or heat source at 37°C in these machines. Either they were remotely controlled, or they were equipped with a real A.I.!

Rider who perceived everything she perceived, called it by their mental bond:

"_You think they'll attack us?"_  
Hakuno was astonished:  
"_Why would they attack us?"_  
"_They're French_" insisted Drake "_They're cowards"_  
Hakuno blinked in disbelief. Rider did not contradict herself? As the latter felt her doubts, she continued:  
"_In any case, the French will never help an Englishwoman like me, they are our sworn enemies! Eh, kiddo__! You __really think French people would do better on the sea than English? __Britannia rules the waves!_"

Although Hakuno knew nothing of the old rivalry between these two peoples, she was far from convinced. Were the English really better sailors than the French? To ask the question to herself, it was to ask the question to the Moon Cell. The Regalia lit up on her finger before projecting several virtual windows with character lists, dates, and even movies.

Unlike England, which had a navy since the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, France owed the creation of its navy to Cardinal de Richelieu... nearly a millennium after the English.

However, the fame of the great admirals that the French had left to world history did not fade before that of the English. Jean duke of Estrées had conquered part of Dutch Guiana in only two months and with only ten ships. Abraham Duquesne, the greatest admiral in the history of France, defeated the Dutchman Ruyter (previously considered the greatest admiral of his time). As for the Marquis de Château-Renault was owed a great British defeat at the Battle of Bantry Bay, off the coast of Ireland. The knight of Tourville, contemporary of the previous, had done even better. Under his command the French fleet completely dominated the seas. The British admirals no longer dared to leave the port, inventing in passing the principle "of the fleet alive". The latter said that as long as a fleet could not win against an opponent, it had to avoid the fight until the situation was favorable to it... Principle still applied by the human marines against the Fog.

Hakuno quickly passed over the rest of the list: the Count of Toulouse; De Court; La Galissonnière; d'Orvilliers; d'Estaing; de Guiche; de Grasse; Suffren; Villaret de Joyeuse; Brueys; de Rigny...

Rider's master sighed while shaking her head. Why did her Servant despise the French? She didn't understand this kind of behavior. It reminded him of Shinji Matou... All the time demeaning others. No wonder he also got along with Drake. The fact remains that the a priori of her Servant rested on nothing.

The MN _Surcouf _had progressed well during this time, passing between the island of Sein and the point of the Raz, it was now advancing in Baie d'Audierne. Since the coast was less deep, the place was ideal for meeting the French. Finally, if she decided to go to them... Because this is the question: Should she contact these people? They seemed to be in desperate need of help, as all humans in this world were. However, what did Hakuno Kishinami really want?

Since waking up to the "first day" of her life a little over seven weeks ago, Hakuno had only reacted to circumstances. Her opponents, the places where she had fought, everything had been chosen by the Moon Cell.  
She could run away from those shores.  
Yes, she could have...

...

... ...

... ... ...

However, it was stupid. Hakuno Kishinami could not hope to face the Fog on his own.

She closed her eyes to focus on her mental bond:

"_Rider, get us closer to the coast_."

Hakuno almost heard Francis Drake's sigh of discontent:

"_On your way to frog-eating country... Girlie, I can't believe you would want to talk to such barbarians!"_ "Barbarians_?"_ said Hakuno. "_Yes, they ride on the right side of the road, eat snails, and use the metric system instead of miles. This is barbaric!_" Replied Rider.

Hakuno reflects for a moment, looking at some files displayed by the Regalia.

"_But the only country that fits your definition of civilization is the United Kingdom_!" "_Yes_!" Drake's answer was immediate and radiant.

Why did Hakuno expect anything else?

* * *

From his observatory, on top of a hill, the _amiral_ Le Bihan could see the entire bay of Audierne. The blue water of the sea met the grey sand of the bank in a vast circular arc bounded to the south by the small town of Saint-Guénolé and to the north by the village of Audierne. Seagulls turned over the_ fusiliers marins_ that had just been deployed by the V.A.B. Some had assault rifles, others had light machine guns. Farther away from the front line, snipers hid in the fields surrounding the bay. As for the accompanying troop transports, they turned their remote machine guns and their grenade launchers towards a figure that slowly advanced towards them... as if walking on the surface of the waves.

Despite years of service, and his participation in the Great Battle against the Fog, Le Bihan had to fight against a strange unease.

The MN _Surcouf _floating in the middle of the bay as carefree 120mm guns pointed at him by the ten Clovis combat robots, or by the two helicopters that continued to watch him.  
And there was the Mental Model of the _Surcouf_. She had just touched the ground right in front of him, without paying attention to the ten _fusillers marins_ around her, wearing helmets in kevlar and gas masks. The humans pointed assault rifles at her, they had grenades, but they were the most nervous.  
The most terrifying thing about the Fog Mental Models was... they were not scary.  
Who would have been afraid of this teenager with long brown hair, dressed in a brown Japanese schoolgirl uniform?  
Yet, during the night, it had swept away a fleet of war.  
The senior officer took off his hat and reached out to the girl:

\- I am _admiral_ Le Bihan from the French's national navy.

She took his hand.

\- Hakuno Kishinami.

The Bihan was surprised. The Mental Models always presented themselves under the name of the ship of which they were... what in fact? The central processor?

\- You are the Mental Model of_ Surcouf_ ?

The teenager bowed her head sideways... The Bihan blinked surprised by this very cute gesture. Around him, the_ fusillers marins_ forgot to breathe. Some lowered their weapons, as if ashamed to aim her.

-... Yes?

The teen girl had just answered with the intonation of a question... as if she wasn't sure of the answer. Besides, Hakuno seemed uncomfortable, watching the sailors in arms around her.

The Bihan changed method:

\- You are in command of the_ Surcouf_?

Nod of the head.

\- Are you a Mental Model?

The girl hesitated...

\- Yes... but no...

The _amiral_ Le Bihan sighed. Undoubtedly, he was moving forward, he had managed to get a three-word answer! The longest so far!

\- And what are you apart of a Mental Model?

\- An A.I. created by the Moon Cell.

* * *

The _amiral_ Le Bihan sighed... again. Discussing with Hakuno Kishinami put his patience to the test. Not that the Mental Model refuses to answer but... its answers were usually limited to "yes" or "no" or even to a simple head movement. The Bihan massaged his temples:  
\- Let's sum up! You are an Artificial Intelligence program created by a supercomputer made up of photonic crystals from the recordings of two humans - a brother and a sister- who would have lived around 2030 on Earth. The computer, of extraterrestrial manufacture, would have been left on the Moon by unknown persons, several billion years ago... right?

\- Yes... but on an alternative Earth...  
The Bihan looked at the girl in disbelief.  
\- A... alternative earth?  
\- A parallel world, Hakuno said.  
The admiral had to make an effort not to laugh at this series of ridiculous stories. Could the Mental Models be delirious?  
\- Let us suppose, Hakuno Kishinami, if you really call it that... what are you doing here?

The question was received with a new head tilt.

\- I... don't know?

Le Bihan felt melted. She had told her story in a monotonous voice, without showing any emotion. Strangely, her behaviour did not seem "mechanical"... but rather like a person with sore sensibility through too many trials.

\- You don't know?

\- The Grail War had just come to an end. I was in the Moon Cell Main Core... and suddenly I became the Mental Model of the _Surcouf._

\- The Grail War?

When Hakuno finished explaining Master, Servant, Magecraft, Spiritron Hacker, Chimeric Lunar Seas and Grail War the majority of those present thought she was crazy. Of the few who were of a different opinion, most felt that she was simply making fun of them. The most open-minded people got dizzy when they realized... that they no longer understood _anything_ about the world in which they were born. The presence of the Fog on Earth had been a shock to humans. Not only were they not alone in the universe, but they were far from being the most advanced... Nevertheless, compared to the Moon Cell, even the Fog Mental Models were only ants.

Le Bihan shortened the discussion, wishing Hakuno a good journey, and immediately undertook to leave with his escort. He was not far from sharing the opinion of the majority of his men, at least intellectually. Only his gut led him to believe the Mental Model... and that frightened him far more than her supposed madness. Magrecraft? Alien's supercomputer that can bend space and time? What sane human would want to approach something so terrifying, so foreign, so vast, so incomprehensible... that makes man feel so small?

* * *

North of Austrian Tirol is the Hohe Tauern Nationalpark, a national park committed to the preservation of wildlife. With the war ravaging Europe, the Fog blockade, no one cared more about this national park that was growing.

However, things had changed.

A simple gravimetric detector had measured a strange phenomenon. The aircraft was not complicated. A series of corridors dug into the rock over kilometres were covered by a laser beam continuously measuring the distance from one end to the other. As soon as a deformation of the space occurred - compressing or dilating by a few millimetres these long corridors - the comparison of the deformations between each corridor made it possible to triangulate the coordonates of the phenomenon.  
Until then, only distant spatial phenomena (black holes, novae) or Fog technology had caused this detector to react. Only, the Fog's warships had never been seen in the Austrian Alps!

Ralph Steiner, a middle-aged Austrian archaeologist, shook hands with his Italian colleague, Pietro di Romelo. The latter had just got off a military vehicle and was looking at the prefabricated base built in record time. Greater than his endowment and the brown skin, di Romelo seemed like burning coals. He immediately spoke:

\- So what did you find?

The Austrian is smiling.

\- The soldiers who called us have located the origin of the signal here at the end of the Gschlöss valley. They used georadar to search for a cavity under the Grössvenediger massif.

Steiner handed his laptop to his colleague, leaning behind him he showed something on the screen.  
\- They found a cavity and you see here...

The Italian inspected what a non-specialist would not have identified as anything other than an impressionist painting.

\- A differential settlement?

\- Right. A tunnel filled, that was my opinion and it was confirmed, di Romelo. But before I go under the mountain, I would like you to give me your impression of what we found in the debris that was evacuated into the tunnel.

Steiner led his colleague to a tent. By the way, they crossed a perimeter where young archaeologists worked. They were sifting through the earth, searching for vestiges of the past.

Inside the canvas building, a succession of iron tables carried various objects: pottery fragments, wicker hoods, tools damaged by centuries of stays underground.

Di Romelo looked like a child on Christmas morning. He went from one table to another looking without touching but frequently nodding his head.

\- This oil lamp is medieval. I would say 8th or 9th century.

Steiner approved the following:

\- Based on carbon 14 dating, it is between 1200 and 1250 years old.

\- So the corridor was filled in the Carolingian era?

\- That is also my opinion, di Romelo. But you have not seen the most impressive.

The two archaeologists passed into the next tent, not without having been controlled by armed soldiers to the teeth.

On the floor was a double door, three meters high and two wide... smashed... The two parts door were made of a kind of black metal... or maybe a rock like obsidian... with gold motifs in diamond shapes. The whole thing looked scary.

\- It was the doors that closed the top end of the access corridor. The military found it under the debris, Steiner said.

\- In what material are they made?

\- I asked the same question well... none on the periodic table of elements.

\- Are you kidding, Steiner?

The Austrian archaeologist, annoyed:

\- Do you think this is a joke? It is a material that changes the propagation of electromagnetic waves. In other words, a photonic crystal. What is more interesting is that the military tried to take a sample and did not even get rid of it.

The Italian looked for a moment at a big fish that had just been caught, opening and desperately closing his mouth to try to breathe. With his finger, he pointed to the door of black and gold crystal... in its center was a hole of the size of a human head. Around this point radiated fractures.

\- Yes, men of the Middle Ages opened it. And you saw the traces of fusion around the hole? According to the military, only an energy weapon could do this kind of damage. Pietro di Romelo was swimming in science fiction... It may have been Daniel Jackson's daily in _Stargate_, but the Italian was not a television show's archaeologist, or Indiana Jones, let alone Lara Croft.

* * *

The two archaeologists descended the long tunnel dug by unknown means that was sinking far under the Grössvenediger. The military had installed electric headlamps powered by cables, providing enough light to see in front of them. After having passed a second door similar to the one above, Pietro di Romelo opened his mouth wide by discovering a landscape... extraterrestrial!

The vast cavern was invaded by monoliths, usually leaning, built in the same material as the doors. They wore gold patterns similar to printed circuit boards. Soldiers and scientists were walking over an elevated passage that zigzagged between the monoliths.

\- What the hell is that?

Steiner shrugged his shoulders when he heard the Italian question.

\- A machine... in operation. Maybe some kind of computer or detector. All we know is that the signal we received yesterday... the one that brought us here... was its activation.  
\- When did all this start?

\- We cannot date the crystal, di Romelo, but we have found some organic debris. The oldest sample dates are around -10,000 BC. Humans have come before us twice. Oil lamps and torches were found. Some were from around the year 800 and others from the end of the fourth century. But look at this.

As they spoke, they had continued on their way and had just passed the technicians who had installed measuring devices between the crystal monoliths. Coming out of the forest of sinister black and gold crystal twinning, di Romelo discovered a wall sculpted in relief, covering the entire wall of the back, perhaps ten meters high.

The central pattern looked like a comet crossing the sky. The artist who had sculpted it had given it the appearance of a crystal star radiating with a single, vertical eye that radiated literally evil. While the whole wall was of yellow stone, only the eye was colored with a red and green iris, surrounded by white.

On the left was a humanoid character, his hands had long fingers and a hole in the palm where a cube appeared. Similarly, the center of the chest was empty, occupied by a larger cube.

The face of the creature reflected a pathetic despair. The mouth was opened on a cry or a supplication, the hands extended in a gesture of supplication towards the evil comet.

The last character in the fresco was on the far right. Much smaller than the other two, it stood on top of a rocky ridge that allowed it to be at the height of the titan. It was a woman wearing armor over a dress, the face showed great nobility, and the hair was gathered in a mat wrapped around the back of the head and held by a ribbon. She held with both hands a sword whose blade shone.  
Under the evil comet, between the two characters, they could see a text. Archaeologists were putting together a scaffold so they could look at it more closely.

\- Fantastic, murmured di Romelo, how old is this fresco?

\- Around twelve thousand years old, it is contemporary with the photonic crystal machine.

Di Romelo was a specialist in pictorial interpretation. He was obviously very impressed.

\- Steiner, do you know that etymologically the word "disaster" comes from _astra_ the Latin for "star"? When the men of the past saw comets, they fell, believing in the end of the world. Myths of this kind can be found in all ancient civilizations. The Celts feared only that "the sky would fall on their heads". The ancient Greeks told the story of Phaeton, a body of fire that had come too close to the Earth, burning it and then causing the biblical Flood. All these legends have a common origin.

With his finger, di Romelo pointed to the central figure of the evil star.

\- And I think that's it!

Steiner nodded his head and spoke again:

\- Do you know the _Drona Parva_? It is part of this long Indian epic poem know as the _Mahâbhârata._ There is a description that reminds me of this evil star:" Once he was attacked by Valadeva, Jarasandha, caught in wrath, threw upon us, to destroy us, a projectile capable of killing all the creatures of the Earth. Casting a bright light, this mass of fire split the firmament in two; as a line separates the hair on the head. When he saw the flamboyant object, the Son of Rohimi threw the weapon called _Sthunakarma_ against it; and this weapon destroyed the power of the opposing projectile, which fell to the earth and split it causing the mountains to tremble." According to some, these writings recount a conflict between the gods and date back thousands of years before our era. Maybe we just found some evidence...

Di Romelo had a worried smile.

\- I remind you that we discovered this place because the machines that had been asleep for twelve thousand years had woken up.

They say that some words call unhappiness...

Steiner wanted to replicate, but the monoliths of black crystal around them began to pulsate. The technicians recoiled and stunned. However, the worst was yet to come. On a corner of the archaeologist observation platform appeared a complicated pentacle: a double circle enclosing a six-pointed star and many symbols. He began to emit some light. Black photonic crystal cubes and purple particles agglomerated to form a translucent human silhouette that quickly acquired the appearance of a thin young woman.

She has red eyes and white, veil-like hair, under an actual white veil. Her body is carved with lines of white tattoos which stood out on her brown skin.

Steiner and di Romelo opened wide eyes. The latter resumed as quickly as possible. He turned to the representation of the titan, on the fresco... the same tattoos, the same veil... worse... the same face!

Without showing any emotion, the strange woman with brown skin reached out and an object appeared in her palm... a kind of sword whose blade resembled a rainbow. She pointed it at the two researchers.

\- I am Altera, Velber's envoy. I seek the inheritor of the Moon, Hakuno Kishinami. Tell me where to find her if you want to live.

Di Romelo opened his mouth but without being able to say anything, his mind was still trying to understand what was happening. Ralph Steiner could only balk:

\- Velber?

Altera showed the central figure of the fresco:

\- Velber, the star of destruction that returns every twelve thousand years to the solar system.  
The Austrian soldiers, recovered from the shock, converged on the intruder and Altera confronted them:

\- Bad civilization!

It wasn't a fight... are we fighting the ants? No, even that comparison could not make us understand the difference in the forces present.  
In less than two minutes, all the soldiers were lying on the ground. None had managed to touch Altera.  
\- Hakuno Kishinami, the Sovereign of the Moon Cell? Where is she?

* * *

**Author note: Yet another chapter longer and more complicated than the previous ones... and yet, each time, I tell myself that I will write more simply in order to avoid spending an entire day on translation.**

**Those who know the Extraverse well must have understood where the last scene takes place; I wouldn't want to deprive you of the pleasure of speculating. Note however that the Altera of this universe has a slightly different past than the one you know. We're in another universe after all, so the places have been modified to take that into account.**


	7. Chapter 7 The Army of the Two Kings

**Author note: Surprise? Yes, Altera come to the Arpeggioverse. And a lot of BIG FIGHT INCOMING ! This Altera is not exactly the one you know. Her story is a bit different. I don't want to say more, because more surprises are on arrival. **

**gold crown dragon: To many wives? Certainly, Nero and Tamano don't' agree for a harem ship!**

**Boyzilla: The head of what? **

**Leonardo Castro: I'm not very good in English, I'm French.**

**Gest93 : technically, this submarine is only a copy of the original **_**Surcouf**_**. She's not a French submarine but an extraterrestrial construct with the same exterior.**

* * *

**The Army of the Two Kings**

Just an hour ago, the places were peaceful. A simple wooded valley of the Austrian Tyrol but...  
We could hear the automatic weapons fire and then an explosion that gave rise to a third column of black smoke. The Austrian soldiers, armed with Steyr Mannlicher assault rifles, fired to keep away an opponent who laughed.

With her hair covered by a white veil, she looked a bit like a bride, even if her... "clothes" didn't cover much more than a bikini, leaving a large part of her skin uncovered. The latter, browned by the sun, was covered with white tattoos.

In one hand, Altera was holding something with a strange guard that could be a sword with a rainbow blade. As a combat robot resembling a large sphere mounted on three legs moved towards Velber's envoy, she faced it without showing any agitation. Her stoic face had never shown any emotion before. She had slaughtered dozens of soldiers without raising an eyebrow.

In the hum of an electric motor, the three-tube auto-cannon, located at the top of the sphere, began to turn. A moment later, a noise of paper torn a thousand times amplified was heard. A veritable shower of shells fell to the ground. Yet, Altera did not make a gesture to defend herself... she simply did not fear non-magic weapons. At least in hands other than a Servant.

Altera just jumped ahead. The Mars Glaive left a brightly colored rainbow in its path... and a sheath of sparks as it passed through the robot. Cut in half as if by the action of a surgeon's scalpel, the mechanics collapsed by spreading around it hydraulic fluid before catching fire and exploding.

A fourth column of black smoke rose to the sky.

Horrified, the Austrian soldiers retreated without ceasing to fire, but Altera had classified them as "bad civilization"... which gave them little chance of surviving.

She again waved the Glaive of Mars, striking above their heads. What followed looked like a horror movie... a tear opened between the dimensions, revealing the cosmos and stars. Torn from the ground by the succession of emptiness, several soldiers disappeared screaming before the breach closed.

The demonstration finished demoralizing the troop in battle-dress. They fled as quickly as they could.

Altera just dropped her sword.

She seemed neither happy nor unhappy that the confrontation was over. The young woman turned to a young archaeologist, fallen to her knees, frozen by terror:

\- I search the Inheritor of the Moon, Hakuno Kishinami, the victor of the Moon Cell Grail War. Where is she?

* * *

In the entrails of the moon of another dimension, a strange object floated above a platform covered with water. It looked like an incomplete cube showing a golden sphere.

The Main Core of the Moon Cell.

With all the power of a supercomputer made up of thousands of kilometers of photonic crystal circuits, the alien computer filled its timeless programming. He was observing.  
He observed simultaneously the birth of empires and the collapse of civilizations, recording all this in his archives already containing the memories of countless parallels Earths. He observed without imagination or feeling, simply performing his ancient role.

For this alien construct, the cell division of protozoa or the assassination of Caesar had little more importance. Emotions and feelings remained unknown to him forever.

However, a variation of the Earth retained its special attention. Not that the conflict between humanity and alien warships controlled by A.I. interests him in itself. But he had chosen to send Hakuno Kishinami there so that she could acquire the body she wanted and see the true sky. It was the Sovereign's wish and the Moon Cell had fulfilled it.

The gigantic computer could not let slip the clues of a sudden activity endangering Hakuno. The lights turned red as a siren sounded:

**[Alert: Velber detected on Earth no. 76809909.]**

**[Search for solution...]**

**[Initialization of security protocol.]**

* * *

The boots on the navigation console, Drake was bored. No enemy ships on the horizon... or any merchant ships to loot. In fact, there were no more merchant ships on this world. What was the use of an honest pirate in a world where the merchant navy had ceased to exist? Damn Fog!

Rider was far too selfish to pity the people of this world. Well what?! Cats bite the mice... nobody was going to shed a tear on the rodent. It was the same! The locals were squealing because the bad Fog was giving them a boo-boo? Not her problem! But prevent her from plundering good and fat merchant ships, then no! No and **NOOOO**!

Drake did not complain particularly about the galleons of war which in their time had protected the trade routes. That was the rule of the game, after all... and then, the Spanish had never caught her. However, a blockade of **ALL** commercials harbors! For God's sake! That was an insult... a personal insult even!

She was going to charge the Fog and literally. She would sink their ships until these strange A.I. offer her "reasonable" compensation. Rider found a smile, dreaming for a moment of heaps of gold coins: ducats, doubloons, guldens, Louis, Krugerrands, Napoleons, dollars-gold... a real mountain! The ransom of several kings! Enough to be queen herself!

The bubble of her golden dream exploded under a not very comforting thought. It was first necessary to convince her Master.

Turning her chair with a kick, she turned towards Hakuno.

Still dressed in her brown school uniform and black tights, the severity of which was hardly mitigated by the blue ribbon that was part of it, Kishinami held her hands crossed on her knees. With her head bent forward, her face partially masked by his long hair cut in fringe, the winner of the Grail War seemed sad and heartbroken.

Francis Drake had started her career as a sailor aboard a slave ship. She had looted, killed without remorse. However, seeing her Master demoralized made her... strangely... it was like...  
Rider scratched her hair violently, refusing to dig deeper into her feelings. And above all to admit - even in the secret of her thoughts- that the mysterious power of her Master, the one that made her attract the affection of Roman tyrants like Japanese monsters, also worked on her. Instead, the pirate woman took the problem head-on:

\- Well, what's going on? We won a naval battle, I remind you. We even plundered everything that was valuable. Why are you making that face?

Hakuno raised her head, and Rider received the shock of her huge brown eyes and as if filled with stars:

\- Why didn't they listen to me, Rider?

Drake sighed out:

\- It's just French; it's not a big loss. I told you to head for England.

\- Will they believe me?

The innocent question made the Servant grimace:

\- If you suddenly explain the Moon Cell, the Grail War and all of that... probably not.

\- But I told the truth, Rider.

\- Well... that's kind of the problem, girlie. You're a sweet, innocent little A.I. and the world is filled with selfish, manipulative, treacherous, petty humans. When you tell them what they're not willing to believe, the truth is worse than a lie.

Hakuno tilted her head to the side:

\- What should I do?

\- Offer them credible lies. For example, you find a purse full of gold on your way. Someone asks you, "This purse is yours, miss?" You have to say, "No, it's my friend Rider's." That's all.

\- Except for the owner?

Rider swept away the argument with a gesture of her hand.

\- One detail, the important thing is that thanks to a lie you can make a lot of gold very quickly. Trust me. Lying and cheating are natural to me and I'm a very good teacher. Let me tutor you all of this and you won't have any problem having friends. (1)  
Drake waited for her Master's answer with a little smile, sure of the result but... the Regalia started to pulsate on Hakuno's finger while a disembodied voice was heard:

_"Alert: Velber detected, __probable threat on the Moon Cell Sovereign"._

Kishinami looked at the ring with perplexity:

\- Velber... likes in my dream... the Sovereign?

Rider frowned at me:

\- Don't you know what the Moon Cell is talking about?

Hakuno shook her head. Drake retained the urge to bang her head against a wall. Instead, she began to calmly explain that the real purpose of the Holy Grail War was to find someone capable of taking control of the Moon Cell. The Sovereign or Inheritor of the Moon was to defend the Moon Cell Automaton against Velber. A near-nature entity that roamed the cosmos plundering the knowledge of the civilizations encountered.

* * *

**[Research of an adequate Top Servant]**

**[Processing...]**

**[Two Top Servant selected]**

**[Queuing summon matrix]**

**[Summon matrix activated]**

**[Initiating spiritron summon]**

Two invocation circles had just appeared in the valley at the foot of the Grössvenediger massif. Feeling the influx of spiritons, Altera turned without showing any emotion. She saw two humanoid forms forming and rapidly becoming dense. A tall man was the first to turn his head to watch dead bodies and destroyed robots. Seeing Altera, he started laughing:

\- The King of the Huns? I am very happy to have been summoned by the Moon Cell to test your strength!

He was a gigantic man of two meters tall. Large with a muscular build, his hair and beard was a crimson fire. The mighty warrior wears an antic bronze armor and a red mantle with luxurious golden decoration and a white fluffy fur collar.

Altera responded simply with the recognition of his legend:

\- Iskandar, the King of Conquerors.

\- I'm not the only one who seeks the glory of your defeat, Altera.

With a movement of his hand, Iskandar named the second warrior who had just appeared in his own invocation circle.

The second Top Servant was an even more impressive warrior than Iskandar himself. Bigger! More muscular! With a face of terrifying calm! His skin was pure ebony but covered with gilded tattoos. His skull and his completely shaved face bore no hair. His clothes were limited to a loincloth decorated with gold, sandals and lot of jewelry, also of gold.

"Darius III" presented Iskandar "It is understandable that I had the reputation of being small because I could not sit on his throne... next to him, anyone would look small. I am pleased to be able to fight alongside him rather than against him. They were a worthy rival and I wish I could have a drink with him when it's all over. Unfortunately... "

Darius III opened his eyes. The peaceful air he had displayed so far gave way to an expression of bloody madness, of irrepressible anger...

He uttered a howl that made the whole valley tremble.

"Unfortunately" resumed Iskandar" it was invoked as Berserker... which shortens the presentations"

The roar of Darius III was a call and he was answered. An army materialized around his lord. The guard of the Immortals, the bodyguards of the Persian King of Kings.

But...

The glory of the Achaemenid dynasty was long forgotten, and the soldier of this empire dead for a long time. The warriors wearing the caps, the rectangular shields, the lances and bows of the Immortals... were cursed and restless undead... skeletons with black bones animated by a sinister eldritch.

Iskandar stroked his beard:

\- I do not wish to dishonor myself by holding back my blows while Darius III will face you with all is strength. My soldiers... their bodies may return to ash, but their spirits still hear my call! These men are my legendary heroes – my loyal followers! They're my true friends - breaking the rules of space and time to fight once more at my side. They are my treasure within treasures; they're my right to rule! They make up Iskandar's mightiest Noble Phantasm – **Ionian Hetairoi**!

Normally, the mighty army can only appear inside a Marble Phantasm... but without master and with the infinite energy off the Moon Cell for sustain is Ultimate Noble Phantasm...

Once again, the army of Iskandar roamed the world to offer victory to its king!

They are thousands of men in phalanx formation, handling the long Macedonian _sarisse_ (a spike eight meters long), the chest protected by _linothorax (fabric armor)_ and the head covered by Phrygian helmets. Eight-row stitch blocks, marching!

It seemed absurd! The coalesced army of the two kings walked on a single frail girl.

But Altera's appearance was deceptive.

At other times she was called Attila... the scourge of God. Her master was Velber, the star of destruction.

She would not fight alone. Around her appeared a convulsed ocean formed of black crystal cubes and purple data particles. They soon gave birth to an army invoked by Velber. Black photonic crystal creatures: "Attack-Type programs": the swarm of soldier-type effigy who can overwhelm the Servants with sheer numbers; they are lead by more powerful commander, the Aggressor that can invoke effigy indefinitely... at least until they are eliminated; and the archer-type effigy; and the colossal gatekeeper with two masses in place of hands, and the winged effigy who attack from the sky by electrical shock; and, finally, the strange Plant, a special attack-program that continually spawn Aggressor.

Two armies commanded by heroes were now facing each other in the valley.  
A camp represented destruction, which it triumphs over, and this world could sink under Velber's inextinguishable appetite for knowledge.

The other represented the true heroes of Earth, defenders of the order of the world.

A battle would erupt... worthy of the myths sung by the bardic's poems of the past, worthy of the greatest legends.

Iskandar, mounted on Bucephalus, pointed his sword to the sky: "Ringing mouths and trumpets, today a new legend will be written in blood and violence... if there remains someone to write it after the last arrow shot".

* * *

**(1) Horror... and it was my idea to entrust Hakuno to this monster (Chaotic Evil)... What did I do, Drake will completely pervert her! Quick, Altera, come save the little squirrel!**

* * *

**Author note : The good thing about writing is that you don't have to pay actors, extras, special effects and stunt artists... because to film the battle you're going to see in the next episode, you would need the budget of the Lord of the Ring. :)**


	8. Chapter 8 Light and Darkness

**Boyzilla: I like this title, inheritor is a logical term for the designation of the Victor of the Holy Grail War, the bearer of the Regalia. **

**Akasha Bloodriver: yes, you van se a true bloodbath in my last production.**

**Daemon of Crawling Tentacles: the response at this question is in this chapter. **

**Xirons20: Thank You, most of your questions have response in my precedents interventions. "Hakuno, will invoke more servants" : Yes.**

**Note of the author: a new chapter, you will not sea Hakuno in this part, but you will see a great battle like in the legends, a new " siege of Troy", a new "Mahabharata", a war with powerful heroes with divines blessing and weapons ! **

**Light and Darkness**

Otawa Bay, Japan

The night had been full of emotions for the crew of submarine I.402 and for all the inhabitants of Yokosuka. The battleship Haruna and Kirishima (both Kongo-class) had attacked the fortified harbour in pursuit of the rebel submarine.

This had led to a battle lasting several hours, the ships of the Fog ramming the defenses built by humans like playing games, destroying the batteries of the defensive wall closing the bay, before making a sufficient breach for their passage. The Japanese army had responded to the attack by sending fighter jets. Poor helpless toys! They had all been shot down without even a scratch on the two warships.

Chihaya Gunzou then intervened with the help of the most recent Japanese war submarine, the _Hakugei_, drawing both battleship into the submerged ruins of the ancient city. After a long battle of attrition, Konaki the commander of the _Hakugei _had succeeded in trapping the two enemy ships and destroying them by serving as a corrosive torpedoe supplied by Gunzou. He had fired just as the two cruisers had merged into some sort of huge gravitonic cannon. Taken by surprise by the use of a Fog weapon by a "harmless human", Haruna and Kirishima had lost control of their weapon, destabilized by the mini black hole. The chain reaction had backfired against the Mentals Models. The result was the formation of a gigantic sphere of energy, which had consumed the two battleships, disintegrating them into fine dust! The shock wave had resulted in a tidal wave, while the energy flash had seen with the naked eye hundreds of kilometers away, impressing measurement instruments all over the planet. (1)

Resting at the bottom of the bay, the _Hakugei_ was in a bad state. It had received a direct impact from an energy shot that pierced it from side to side, fortunately without touching any vital system. She had also been hit several times by near-miss, her torpedo defense system (fast-firing guns) having managed to prevent her from being hit directly.

\- Can you hear me, bridge?

Commander Konaki worked like a convict to plug a gap through which the sea poured. Many sailors and officers around him worked with water up to his ankles. But as he worked to save his ship, he continued to learn about what was going on outside the bruised submarine.  
In his earpiece, an officer of the deck replied:

\- Yes sir... we can hear you.

\- Status report!

The officer replied:

\- We don't have the details yet, but most of the bridge has stopped function. The engine has been completely shut down. We're running the bare essential with the backup battery.

Being near the explosion site of the two cruisers had finish of the _Hakugei_. She could not resume the sea by her own means. Fortunately, she was close to the shipyard that built her.

Konaki focused on the essentials:

\- Prioritize the engine! How's the sonar ?

Although there is little chance that enemy ships survived the explosion, he needed proof, not speculation. The officer on deck responded diligently:

\- The sonar is working... We can hear something that sounds like a giant waterfall... but other than that...

Konaki shook his head. He had seen Haruna and Kirishima open the ocean to snatch the I.402 from the seabed like Moses had done from the Red Sea. The open wound in the ocean closed.

\- Captain, this is the Bridge!

Hearing the officer's emergency charge voice, Konaki answered immediately:

\- What is it?

\- We have just received a emergency message from the base! It says:" Yokosuka port command has confirmed the sinking of both Fog's battleships." Captain...! Captain! We did it! We've sunk both of them! We're the first man-made vessel... to have sunk fog battleship!

Everywhere, on board of the Hakugei simple sailors and officers embraced in the joy of the moment. Humans could beat the Fog!

Governments around the world were sending congratulatory messages to Japan. China and Russia were proposing to send economic aid. The U.S.A. renewed its intention to help Japan develop the vibration warhead. They immediately sent a space transport with emergency aid.

* * *

One battle ended, another began.

Because war never dies.

* * *

Austrian Tyrol,

A battle was raging. A battle as the Earth had not known since the end of the Age of the Gods. Two armies collided in the encased valley. Their attacks collapsed large chunks of rock and caused landslides. The trees were cut by swords. The arrows fired were impregnated with poisons unknown to mortals. The maces exploded, digging spheres of fire into the ranks of the fighters. The lances were burning with red energy.

That was Roland in Roncevaux.

Hector opposite Achilles under the walls of Troy.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu facing Humbaba.

Coming from the bottom of the valley, the coalition army of Iskandar and Darius III were struggling to move forward even though they were slowly repelling the enemies programs of Velber.

At the center of the melee, a Gatekeeper struck the Macedonian soldiers who surrounded him with great blows. The colossus, with his hands replaced by maces heads, broke the pikes, threw men into the sky, or throw them to the ground. However, the soldiers of the **Ionian Hetairoi** were not weakening. They impaled the giant that collapsed before crumbling into purple particles.

The loss of this powerful unit caused a breach in the formation of Velber's troops, immediately exploited by the phalangists. Their disciplined formations had no trouble repelling the effigy armed with swords and axes that fought without military formation.

Suddenly she jumped among them, iron maiden wielding a multicolored sword. Twirling, bouncing, sprinting among them, her blade depicted rainbows that mowed down lives, slaughtering Macedonians by the dozens.

Altera stopped and released the power of her blade. Three jets of ice erupt in front of her, freezing a wave of soldiers that was rising towards her.

In a moment, the course of the battle was reversed. It was the turn of the Macedonians of Iskandar to bend. Their formations had just been driven in. Following their leader, effigies and Aggressor cut into pieces the disorganized phalangists.

* * *

A few kilometers away, a tent sheltered the Q.G. of the Austrian troops deployed in the valley. The officers gathered around the computer consoles displayed a deathly silence. The images sent by the drones exceeded anything they had ever experienced.

"Someone wake me up and tell me I'm dreaming". The voice of a technician, squeezing against him a file he wanted to give to a major, summed up the impression of everyone present.

A dream.

A nightmare.

Something that cannot exist.

However, the drones continued to film what could not be. The major took the file from the technician. It consisted of a simple cardboard shirt. There was a red sticker marked "confidential" and a simple name "Hakuno Kishinami".

* * *

The fight dragged on. Both sides had given up hope of a quick victory. The warriors of the two kings, the minor heroes and the undead, individually outskilled the effigies used by the star of destruction. However, Velber could call in more people.

On the left wing, the forehead looked like a huge melee, a succession of individual battles. Swords, axes, and spears collided in a constant noise. Here and there, in-fighting men collapsed before disappearing, as if never existed. Darius III skeletal warriors, his eternal slaves, trying to advance toward a near Aggressor. For around him, effigies appeared unceasingly, filling up the losses in the ranks of the army of Velber. If he can't be destroyed, the Immortal will be overwhelmed by the sheer number of adversary.

One Immortal collapsed suddenly struck by an electric flash, another by his side, others... The shots came from the sky. Winged effigies hovered over the battlefield. They fired electricity with deadly precision at Persian fighters. Their action precipitated the debacle of the bodyguards of the King of Kings.

At that moment a shriek shook the valley.

There in the front row of the reinforcements, marching towards the first line, advanced a war elephant covered with paint representing eyes.

Darius III stood on his neck, waving in each hand a war mace with the head wrapped in green flames.

Suddenly tentacles of darkness sprang from beneath the feet of his terrifying mount. They were covered with bones and skeletal arms came out. They fell among the fighters, hitting the Effigies on the ground as in the air.

Darius III Codomannus lauched his mounting forward. With a powerful thrust, the war elephant broke into the ranks of Velber's armies, leading the assault of the Immortals who came after him. One of the tusks of the elephant impaled the Aggressor which struggled for a moment before dissipating into data purple particles.

Flipping his head back, the King of Kings howled his triumph...

* * *

Pacific Ocean,

The gigantic battleship _Yamato_ was moving into the deep sea. Protected by an energy bubble, the _Yamato_ Mental Model was looking at a screen that was floating right in front of her. There was a terrestrial confrontation between two armies wielding primitive weapons: swords, axes, spears, pikes and bows. However, the clash in the Austrian Alps gave off enough energy for its sensors to pick up a sudden explosion of power.

Yamato 2, dressed in a kimono, manipulated various virtual screens whirling around her. There were enlargements of the battle, still photographs showing various types of fighters, calculations, algorithms or graphs.

She spoke out:

\- The images broadcast by Austria to its European allies and other states of the world show no signs of manipulation. It is not a question of digital reconstruction, but rather of slightly delayed shooting.

Yamato 3 turned to her sister, who was also surrounded by virtual screens showing scenes from the battle:

\- The Macedonian soldiers using Macedonian _sarissa_ about 4 to 6 meters longs, the short one in first line, the long ones to the rear. It's the standard armament and formation for the phalanx from Phillip II and Alexander's era. It's historically accurate.

\- Thank you.

Yamato 1 frowned, her only reaction to the enormity of the revelations made to her. In less than forty-eight hours, the supreme flagship of the Fog had been forced to admit things that would have driven more fragile minds to madness.

Yamato could not deny what she saw since the analyses showed that there was no will to deceive her. If it was true, then what did it mean? By Hakuno Kishinami, the Fog had learned a number of things about the Moon Cell Automaton. It was an alien computer installed on the moon of a parallel world. The video sent by the Austrians to their allies - hacked by the Fog- made them discover another mysterious entity... Velber, the star of destruction who returned every twelve thousand years to attack the Earth!

The Fog could not remain neutral and Yamato doubted that we could reason with an entity like Velber...

* * *

Austrian Tyrol:

\- **Light at the other end of the world- conquer! **_**Via expugnatio!**_

The spectacle that offered itself to the cameras of the drones was probably to finish breaking down the last barriers of rationality among the spectators.

A war charriot fired by two oxen had just appeared... over the battlefield. Iskandar laugh while the lightning generated by his wheels hit the ranks of the Enemies programs below:

\- Gordius Wheel!

Amid the roar of the oxen, the chariot lost altitude and eventually landed in the middle of the enemy ranks. In a powerful trampling, Gordius Wheel crossing the field of battle, the bulls killing by horns and hooves, the chariot by is wheels, and this physical damage strike simultaneously at multiple magical lightning bolts.

Iskandar's target was a plant. He rushed at it for the first time, making it take the full power of his charge before turning back. The strange machine that created the Agressors had fallen to the ground and was still surrounded by electric shocks. His second charge was victorious.

Around the Conqueror, more of an hundred of Enemies Programs were loosening into purple particles, including three gatekeepers. The victory pushed the colossus with the red beard to leave in a great burst of laughter that made his passenger grimace.

The latter was strangely dressed in a three-piece suit, with a tie and cufflinks. He certainly not wore a Macedonian outfit under his elegant red overcoat. His hair was long and black.

\- You still haven't lost the habit of blowing up my eardrums, Rider!

He choked like a "friendly" slap almost took his shoulder apart.

\- Waver, you have gained a few centimeters and a little courage, but you still have to get used to the noise of the battle.

* * *

Iskandar's victory had not escaped Altera. This time, the balance of the battle had just shifted in favor of her enemies. With the loss of a plant his troops did not renew themselves so quickly, and the individual superiority of his opponents gave them the advantage.  
Pointing the knob of her sword to the sky, she appealed to her Noble Phantasm:

\- **Teardrop Photon Ray!**

A scarlet ray sprang from the pommel and struck the sky where several luminous pentacles unfolded. Then a ray fell from space, struck magic circles and found itself amplified into a formidable laser fire that struck the earth, in the middle of the ranks of the coalized army.  
The result was a formidable explosion that swept through the ranks of the Immortals she was fighting. Without even allowing herself a moment of rest, the champion of Velber jumped forward, crossing a vitrified and smoking landscape. The enemies were dead. Hundreds of fighters had fallen in a moment.

In the center was a crater... and Darius III, Altera's primary target.

His war elephant had been destroyed, but he stood up, waving his two masses still wrapped in green flames, and stormed.

Unfortunately for him, the King of Kings was far from coming out intact from Altera's most powerful attack. He remained potent, but his blows did not carry. A veritable bonfire, Altera dodged while jumping, rolling, and retaliated at every opportunity.

Pierced with blows and scrapes, the Berserker fell on one knee.

While Velber's envoy lifted the Glaive of Mars to strike the fatal blow, a thunderbolt forced her to jump from a distance.

\- Enough!

Altera looked up to find out who had called her. Not surprisingly, it was Iskandar. Gordius Wheel again made contact with the ground, heading for the king of the Huns, who courageously faced the charge of the oxen of Zeus, surrounded by electric shocks.

She raised her sword over her shoulder and slashed in front of the divine chariot. A rift opened, a rift in which stars could be seen on the dark side of the cosmic void. Gordius Wheel disappeared!

However, Altera merely rotated slightly to look at Iskandar who had just touched the ground, holding by the collar of his overcoat a purple Waver Velvet was shaking of indignation:

\- Twice you lose your chariot in a frontal attack! This might be the time to start using subtlety, don't you think?!

The King of Conquerors scratched his scalp in a bored air:

\- I would think about it. Finally, it gives me the opportunity to fight the King of the Huns with a sword in my hand.

He laughed, drawing his own sword, and then making great strides towards Altera.

* * *

_Aristeia_

It's an old word. An old Greek word... a word that was ancient in the time of classic Greek... in fact this is a word of Homeric Greek. In a dramatic poetry like _Iliad_, a hero lives for the battle finest moment (_Aristos_ is the Greek word for "best").

The meeting of Altera and Iskandar was the _Aristeia_ of the two heroes. The very meaning of their heroic existence. Altera was almost single-handedly routs the Immortal guard, and defeated Darius III. She was a mighty foe for the king of Macedonia. But also, the rampage of Gordius Wheel -empowered by Zeus Himself- was the mark of a true hero, and Iskandar was also a formidable enemy for the champion of Velber.

The clash of two heroes of this caliber was an ultimate _Aristeia_.

Iskandar threw himself forward laughing, Altera conter and soon the two opponents opposed each other in a dazzling display of fencing.

Every time the blades collided with energetic flashes, sparks shone. Blows that missed their target would open the floor. The two opponents were of equal strength, but faster and more agile, Altera attacked from all sides, twirling, striking, withdrawing, to launch under another angle.

Quickly, Iskandar began to retreat, finding himself forced to defend without being able to strike a blow.

When she threw an attack on the King of Conqueror that froze him, it released into a formidable electric shock. However, Altera returned to the charge and struck his armed arm.

The sword escaped from the fingers of the colossus to sink into the ground several meters away. As the champion of Velber pointed her blade under the throttle of the defeated, Iskandar passed his hand in the hair, looking embarrassed:

\- Well, this is my defeat...

Altera imperceptibly lowered the sword of Mars:

\- You wanted to test my force; do you recognize that I am stronger than you?

\- Yes... for now. But I ask for another chance to undo you! I've just been summoned, and to be honest I haven't regained all my abilities. Look, I have a proposition, Altera.  
\- The defeated one wants something from me? All right, I guess as the victor I have to listen to you.

\- I offer to join you... and Darius too. You do not know the path of the conqueror. Let me teach you. When I regain all my strength, I reserve the right to challenge you again.  
\- Do you know where Hakuno Kishinami is?

\- The Victor of the Moon Cell Grail War? Yes.

\- All right, take me to her.

* * *

(1) The confrontation is described between chapters 9 and 14 of the manga. I decided not to tell it in detail because it had not been disrupted from the original narrative.

* * *

**Author Note: You must have found the Fallout Easter's egg by yourself. Otherwise, the appearance of Waver Velvet (adult) has a meaning that you will understand later. Let's just say I find it awkward to make a character appear just when you need it. At least when his incredible knowledge of magic and myths make him useful, no one will wonder where he came from.**


	9. Chapter 9 Old Friends, New Alliances

**xirons20**** & ****nyanmato****: ****I answer you together even though your comments are opposite. One liked, the other hated... It is impossible to write a story that everyone likes. I am not stupid enough to try. But I still want to write a story. This one requires construction and development. I'm trying to change the styles as the story unfolds and for the sake of the story.**

**Akasha Bloodriver : Thank. I really love Altera a cute and sweet... juggernaut of destruction!**

* * *

**Old Friends, New Alliance**

* * *

The _MN Surcouf_ sailed on the surface off Wright Island. The waves of the bow broke into foam as the submarine swung eastward. The waters of the English Channel were free of ships and the sky covered with grey clouds did not indicate the presence of planes... except that two stealth drones followed the rebel submersible. One of them had been following the warship since the day before. The second came from the north, before taking off from any land belonging to the_ Royal Navy_.

The command post of the _Surcouf_ was installed in a dome-shaped room. Three horseshoe-shaped workstations followed the circular contour of the room. In the center of each of them, surrounded by consoles and screens, there was a chair waiting for a crew member... In fact, only the helmsman's post was occupied

With his boots crossed on the console, Drake looked away from the main screen, covering most of the dome. There were two patrols of the Fog within radar range. One seemed to open the road to the _Surcouf_, while the second followed them while maintaining the distance.

The battle against _MN Algérie_ and _MN Colbert_ had seriously impressed the Fog. Since the day before, all the warships of this strange entity have been kept at bay.  
Rider stretched like a cat before flipping his head to consider his Master:

\- So, have you decided what to do with our prisoners?

Francis Drake spoke of course of the Mental Model Colbert and Algérie. Both girls were kept for now in an empty room. Hakuno Kishinami had already answered the question several times... simply wanting to return them to the Fog. But Drake pretended not to hear... the idea seemed crazy to him. His Master had some strange ideas. For her, the war stopped when people could no longer fight. Obviously, she didn't understand anything... The most interesting stage (looting) began once the last shot was fired. And the prisoners were booty like any other. The pirates had always held officers and passengers in ransom. Drake was saddened that his Master broke this well-established tradition... She felt very traditionalist on some issues. Weird, isn't it?

In the middle of the command post, there was a simple chair on a circular platform. There were no consoles or screens. The commander of the _Surcouf_ was one with his ship. At first glance, however, she was not impressive. She was a frail young teen-girl with a brown schoolgirl outfit on top of a black turtleneck and black pantyhose. Her long brown hair was cut in fringe above her similarly brown eyes.

However, around her appeared and disappeared screens showing movies or still images, graphs, and calculations. She was Hakuno Kishinami, the sovereign of the Moon Cell, inheritor of the moon, victor of the Moon Cell's Holy Grail War.

Drake's question made her blink. Hakuno leaned her head to the side and looked at her Servant with bright eyes:

\- We land them in England.

Drake sighed... Turning her Master into a true pirate would still require a lot of effort! Fortunately, Rider had at least managed to convince Hakuno that the French had as much brain as the snails they loved (yuck!).

Rider was about to speak again when she realized that several virtual screens around Hakuno had turned red.

The Master appeared troubled, pinning on her heart the hand decorated with Regalia. As Hakuno's expression showed a strong concern, Drake found himself by his side... without remembering to have stood:

\- Master, what's going on?

Hakuno concentrated and pointed to the central screen of the hand. The British Channel map was gone. In its place, one could see the last twitches of a row battle...

Attila the Hun vs Iskandar and Darius III, nothing but that!

Drake watched the confrontation and saw Velber's envoy crush the two heroes with an ease that spoke volumes about her power.

\- What am I to do? Say Hakuno turning her limpid eyes to her Servant.

Francis Drake felt something move in her chest and looked away. How the hell did her Master look so innocent? She coughed into her fist to make herself look good and turned around:

\- First, we need to call for reinforcements. Regalia can allow you to invoke help without even having to trace a pentacle or recite a formula.

Hakuno turned his head towards Drake. As often happened, his face had returned to an almost total lack of emotion. The winner of the Holy Grail War would make a fortune as a poker player. She seemed incapable of showing her emotions... except during brief impulses as brutal as a mountain torrent inflated by the collapse of a glacier.

\- Can I summon whoever I want? Asked Hakuno.

\- I guess you can only summon a hero from the Moon Cell... a hero you know.

Hakuno meditated on the answer and then nodded his head. Leaving his chair, the Master gained a free space. As she raised her hand, the Regalia shone on her finger, drawing a pentacle of blue light on the metal floor.

* * *

It was a landscape of sand, with waves. Mineral ocean formed of dunes softly stirred by a tired wind that shattered its grains under a veiled sky of fumes. Everywhere swords, swordfish, cemeteries, katanas, rapiers and a thousand other kinds of sharp weapons emerged from the gangue of sand.

There was no sun or moon in this strange universe, but huge, rusty gears kept spinning.

A mechanical, mineral, dead world.

A Reality Marble who embodies the internal world of a Magus and imprint him upon the world as a Bonded Field. It's name? **Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creations of Swords,** the Noble Phantasm of a tragic Heroic Spirit...

The sand sprayed under the black boots reinforced with metal parts.

A pan of red clothing snapped in the wind.

He had never known defeat.

Standing on top of a dune covered in swords.

Yet his hands had never held a blade.

The tall, tanned figure turned a silver gaze to the sky. A strange smile appeared on her lips. One read mockery and affection in his eyes:

\- Would I ever get rid of you, Master?

* * *

\- Come to me, Nameless!

There was an explosion of light above the pentacle. A spectral silhouette appeared to emerge from the ground, gradually taking on a material form: A tall man with white hair and silver eyes, and tanned skin color. He wears a black body armor (a Mystical Code) with white accents, made from a high tech Kevlar-like material. His signature red coat is a holy shroud tied with an agemaki knot covered by a silver plate.

Nameless smashed Rider with a sardonic smile before his expression softened at the sight of the little girl who looked at him with her huge brown eyes:

\- Are you my Master?

Hakuno stood up; tears filled her eyes and she shouted in a voice cracked by emotion:

\- Yes I am!

Namless reached out one hand, wiping Hakuno's tears in a gentle gesture:

\- I am the Servant Archer. Once again, I will lead you to victory, Master!

* * *

10 Downing Street is one of the most known addresses in the word. Most Englishmen simply says "Number 10" when speaking of the official residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His famous black door appeared in many government speeches, since - traditionally, the government spokesman responded to journalists with his back to it.

Number 10 is near Buckingham Palace, London residence of the British Monarch, and the Palace of Westminster meeting place of both English parliament (The House of Lords and the House of Commons).

The meeting was relatively quiet.

Crossing the roadblocks of policemen who filtered the visitors, two individuals were introduced into the residence of the Prime Minister. They couldn't seem any different from each other. The first was a Japanese man of high height and heavily robust silhouette, wrapped in a top. His bearded, rough face was stricken with a scar. He also wore dark glasses that completely obscured his eyes.

The man was escorting a lovely little girl. Protected by an umbrella, her blond hair carefully concealed by a capelin, she dressed in a Victorian dress embellished with ribbons and embroidery.

They were taken to a small living room on the second floor. English furniture, sofa and armchairs, covered with a canvas with floral motifs, surrounded a coffee table in waxed wood. The fine red striped blue wallpaper saw a comfortable gallery of painted portraits and photographs. An ancient clock tickled with the gravity of a long tradition.  
At their entrance a young man stood up. His hair was blond, squared, and his eyes as green as emerald. He smiled at them and took a few steps to meet them. Behind him, a man with a pale face and long black hair, dressed in a dark coat with a neck covered with feathers, followed him like a sinister shadow.

The blond man shook the Japanese's hand:

\- Welcome, Shozo Chihaya, co-commander of the Scarlet Fleet.

Shozo Shihaya had been the best officer in the Japanese Fleet, took over the I-401 and... disappeared. The vessel had returned to Japan without her crew. Two years earlier, a drone had filmed Shozo Chihaya alive and well on the deck of a Fog ship, surrounded by his men. Since then he was considered a traitor.

While the co-commander of the Scarlet Fleet - the Fog fleet in charge of controlling the coasts of Europe- sat in the chair he was presented with, the blond man smiled at the little girl.

\- And welcome flagship Musashi, also co-commander of the Scarlet Fleet.

The little girl smiles, slightly lifting her dress in reverence.

\- We are pleased to respond to your invitation, Prime Minister Harvey.

Leonardo Bistario Harwey smiled and turned to point with one hand to the man standing behind him:

\- Allow me to introduce my half-brother Julius Belkisk Harwey.

As the quartet sat around the round table, Shozo Chihaya and Leonardo B. Harwey discussed unimportant matters while silent servants served tea. When the latter withdrew, Leo smiled:

\- So let's really start. You're here to make a proposal. Do, I'm prepared to listen to it.

Shozo Chihaya stood up and took a look at Musashi. The Mental Model was fondling a cat who had come to join her with a purr. She answered the implicit question with a simple chin movement. The Japanese officer turned to Leo:

\- Mr Prime Minister, first of all I would like to thank you for having us.

Leo smiles:

\- A statesman must listen, even to his enemies, to command. Perhaps even especially to his enemies. Quite often the opposition is born of misunderstanding. Talking to each other is the first step toward resolving any dispute.

\- A wise remark, Prime Minister. The first thing I want you to understand is that the Fog is not the enemy of humanity.

Leo's eyes hugged:

\- I accept what you have to say, Mr Chihaya. Nevertheless, the fact is that the Fog has not been friendly at the moment. Is it too much to ask to explain this contradiction?  
Shozo Chihaya remained impassive, seeming to fix the young blond man behind his dark glasses:  
\- The Fog is made up of warships. Violence is its normal reaction. Nevertheless, the primary aggression is man: pollution; global warming; overpopulation... this kind of thing endangers the survival of the planet. The Fog decided to react in accordance with the Admiralty Code, removing the cause of the imbalance.

Leaning forward, Shozo Chihaya put his hands on the table:

\- But as you must have noticed, there have been major changes in the last 48 hours.

\- Of course, Leo replied calmly.

The young man turned to take the cardboard shirt that Julius- standing behind his chair- handed him. He drew photographs which he displayed in front of his interlocutor:

\- Hakuno Kishinami, from the "Moon Cell", Altera... or shall I say Attila, the king of the Huns? The envoy of "Velber". Unknown alien entities have just invited themselves to Earth. If the Moon Cell has been portrayed as harmless by Miss Kishinami... if we can rely on her, at least, Velber would be a monstrosity that plunders the worlds and has already ravaged the Earth, twelve thousand years ago. Let us add Alexander the Great (or "Iskandar") and Darius III, two great kings... it seems he brought back to life by the Moon Cell to fight Altera and defeated by her. Are these the changes you're talking about, commander?

Insensitive to the bitter irony of the young blond man, Shozo Chihaya merely nodded slowly:

\- We do not have much time to discuss this, Prime Minister. As we speak, the world is shaken by successive shocks that threaten its stability and very survival. So I'll get to the point. The United Kingdom is an archipelago. Cut off from the mainland by the Fog blockade, the economy was devastated. Unemployment, industrial collapse, malnutrition are the lot of the population. The Fog proposes an alliance. We cannot do without humans. You need industrial and food assistance that we will provide in return.  
Leo squared himself in his chair, taking a thoughtful look. He was not surprised; in fact he was expecting this proposal.

\- Okay, I'm personally in favor. I'm in charge of convincing both houses of the parliament and the king.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami looked around with surprise. A moment earlier, she was talking with Archer and Rider and... now she was there. An empty and white space extending to infinity that seemed to be a virtual reconstruction... Hakuno was used enough to the digital spaces to recognize it at first glance. Especially since the quality of this cyberspace could not be compared to the Seraph. It looked like an old picture with thick grain and bright colors.  
As she turned her head to spot herself, Hakuno saw a sort of kiosk. A wrought iron garden table was set up in the centre with two fitted chairs. A young woman with long black hair, decorated with a ribbon as white as her dress, sat there, drinking tea. She raised beautiful purple eyes to Hakuno and smiled:

\- Come here, I want to talk to you.

Hakuno hesitated slightly, then displayed a determined face before pulling the chair and sitting. She had not let go of the one on the other side of the table. The face of her hostess was not unknown to her... No, Kishinami had never met her but the Victor of Grail War had inherited all the memory banks of the_ Surcouf._

\- You are the Suprem Flagship Yamato.

\- Yes I am, Hakuno Kishinami. We're in a virtual space hosted by one of the Fog ships... It's a private chat room. With a little practice, you can imagine tea, coffee, cupcakes to brighten up the discussions. Try it!

The teenage girl in the brown uniform focused on the memory of the tea that Archer used to serve her in "My Room" when they returned from training at the Arena. The teapot given to them by Taiga Fujimura appeared as if by magic, filled with a steaming liquid, next to one of the cups that accompanied it. She served herself, and acquiesced... Kishinami did not doubt that the tea was reconstituted according to her memories, because the taste was identical to that which her Servant had brewed.

\- Good!

Hakuno looked at Yamato, who smiled softly:

\- Hakuno Kishinami what do you know about Velber?

Making a gesture of the hand, she brought up a virtual screen which displayed a film shot by archaeologists who had opened the ancient crypt in the Austrian Alps. One could see a fresco whose central element was a radiant star with a single eye.

Hakuno looked at the Regalia on her finger. The Moon Cell reacted to the question by creating a series of virtual screens. Some showed images, others texts.

As a superior A.I. Yamato could divide her attention among many topics of attention, she looked and read, understanding the real danger represented by the entity faster than a human could have done. Her beautiful face froze under the effect of worry.  
The Moon cell gave precise and detailed information about the plague that had just appeared on Earth.

Velber or Umbral Star, also known as Harvest Star is a predatory entity. It travels the galaxy and when it detects sentient life, it creates Anti-Cells (self-made invasion weapons like Altera) for destroy them and devour their knowledge. Velber have a central core surrounded by layers of armor and numerous "Ark of the stars", individual space vessels for the transportation of the Anti-Cells.

\- Hakuno Kishinami, do you understand that Altera has come after you? That she is trying to seize the Regalia?

The Inheritor of the Moon nodded with a sad look. Yamato was annoyed by her guest's lack of responsiveness. Hakuno restrained herself to hold her ring-adorned hand against her chest, seeming to reflect... and doubt. She eventually raised her head. The face showed uncertainty, but a flame burned in her large brown eyes:

\- Sorry?

Yamato has sighed:

\- I don't need your apologies. I'm asking what you're willing to do to protect this world that you put in danger.

The victor of the Moon Grail War knew the right answer:

\- I fight.


	10. Chapter 10 Nearchus of Leto

**Boyzilla: ****I didn't want any more cute moments in the previous chapter than Archer's arrival. I didn't want to dilute the impact of that moment.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: I tried to put myself in Hakuno's shoes. If I were her, the Servant I would most want to see is the one I had during the Grail War. So, to me, it was obvious that Archer would be the first to be summoned.**

**Xirons20: Thank. **

**Nearchus of Leto**

Hakuno was sitting still, surrounded by virtual screens that she wasn't looking at. For several minutes his mind was divided between the management of the _Surcouf_ and a conversation with the Supreme Flagship Yamato. In the digital space that served as a meeting place for the A.I. of the Fog, negotiations were underway. Their stake? Nothing less than the future of this version of Earth...

However, Hakuno Kishinami's Servants sometimes seemed to require as much attention as kittens and leaving them without guidance was not necessarily a good idea...

In the armchair of the artillery officer, a tall and well-built man, dark skin, white hair and silver eyes, watched the helmsman operating. Archer's sardonic smile spoke volumes about his feelings for the pirate woman.

Drake feigned to concentrate on the maneuvers of the submarine cruiser; nevertheless she briefly glanced over her shoulder. Finally, she doesn't want it anymore:

\- Go ahead, since you have something to say, let us hear the fruit of your wisdom.

Archer laughed a little, just condescending enough to shout a little more at Drake's bad mood.

\- Me, Rider? No, I have nothing to say.

\- Then why are you staring at me like that?

\- Is that prohibited?

Drake looked up to the sky. There was nothing to do, since the first meeting, Archer made her want to scream and bite!

\- They never told you it wasn't polite, Archer?

The Servant of the bow closed an eye and spread his arms, displaying an air of false humility:

\- Oh? Dogs look at sausages well...

On account, Francis Drake turned scarlet with a swollen vein beating at his temple. She had to make heroic efforts to avoid exploding with rage, right before the eyes of their Master. After a minute of breathing exercises, Rider turned to Archer pointing at him with a finger stretched out and the voice deafened by the effort to control her anger:

\- You, I don't love you! I don't understand what Hakuno finds in you. Inside, there is nothing but gears trains and calculations. You're some kind of war machine that rejected feelings and emotions. And in the certainty of your superiority, you look at others with a smug smile. You don't suffer from loneliness, sir "I'm-an-army-all-by-myself"?

Drake's scathing repartee was greeted by the same condescending grin she denounced:

\- Sure you can afford to lecture others. You are a saint, after all.

Rider did not appear disturbed by the indirect recall of her crimes:

\- Yes, I am a pirate, a slave trader, a villain, an anti-hero. But at least I lived my life to the fullest and could laugh in the face of death. You, I am certain, have perished crushed by your failures in some impossible quest.

The two heroes were now looking at each other with anger, even if it just meant to Archer that his smile had faded in favor of a cold expression. They had forgotten Hakuno, while their arguments had been exchanged more and more violently. However, even if it is shared between several tasks, it comes into play:

\- You couldn't get along?

They turned around to face their Master. The teen girl tilt her head and looked at them with big brown eyes.

"How cute she is," Archer thought.

"Ah! She's adorable" is what crossed Rider's mind.

The reaction of the two Servants would have deserved to be filmed. At one moment, they seemed on the verge of throwing themselves on each other like two drooling and growling fighting dogs... and the next moment each one showed his own expression of contrition... well as long as they were able (they had a lot of progress to make in this area).

Archer leaned against his chair, folding his arms in a deliberate gesture to show that he was giving up. A smile that was both amusing and fatalistic replaced his usual sarcastic smirk:

\- Master, will I ever be able to cure you of your absurd idealism? Servants exist to fight, not to crony...

As for Francis Drake, she suddenly blushed. Conscious of having been put in order as a not wise child who attacked another in the school yard... Although mortified by the spectacle she had just given, Rider glanced at Archer incendiary, well aware that he had manipulated her to make her look ridiculous. Drake was reluctant to say, "He started it," because that was not the most mature answer.

\- You're right Master, we have enemies around us. I... I should concentrate on driving.

Turning around, she put her hands on the bar, feigning interest in the control panels. Rider, however, took one last look at Hakuno. The skinny girl continued to look at her Servants, her head turning to one, and then to the other, as if she were wondering if she had really avoided confrontation.

Drake didn't understand Hakuno Kishinami. On the one hand, it was - without question - the most brilliant of the Masters of the Holy Grail of the Moon Cell War. On the other hand, she seemed so... innocent?

It is hard to imagine that the best tactician among the Masters, who owes her many victories to an innate talent to find the weaknesses of her opponents, exploit them and bring them down is also... as naive!

Even the passing of the game of death created by the Seraph had not succeeded in making him lose this sensitivity and this loving heart so unusual among the Spiritrons Hackers. This was beyond comprehension. Throughout his life, Drake had always seen humans acting out of selfishness.

Few had hesitated to cynically abandon their principles and friends to save themselves. Only, it would never have come to Hakuno's idea.

Certainly, of the unrecoverable cases of this kind, Rider had encountered more than one. But in the long run, they ended up choking on their great ideals... along with their birth certificate. Why did Kishinami survive when she was carrying all that ridiculous sentimentalism?

Even as Drake shook her head, irritated by this contradiction, she frowned, struck by a sudden doubt. Was it really a weakness... or the very reason for his victory?

Did she win **despite** her too much humanity or **because** of it?

* * *

The virtual space used as a meeting place for the A.I. of the Fog did not shine by its originality or its extent. It was an empty white space with no horizon. The only structure was a kiosk like the ones found in the gardens and where musicians came to play on the weekend. The place housed a simple garden table made of forged metal and painted in white, surrounded by fitted armchairs.

For Hakuno Kishinami, accustomed to the landscapes of the Seraph and the labyrinths of the chimerical Lunar Seas, it was like comparing the scribbles of a four-year-old to a painting by a great artist. Everything seemed flat, pixilated, with shrill colors, and a strong impression of unreality.  
Sitting on the other side of the table, Yamato noted Hakuno's absence. Sipping her tea, she looked at her for a moment, waiting for her to show signs of attention again:

\- What is going on?

Kishinami blinked quickly and tilt her head.

\- Excuse me, madam?

Without knowing why, Yamato looked away. The head of the Fog felt blush and shook her head. What happened to him? The supreme flagship endeavored to repel this inexplicable weakness and faced the strange invader from the Moon Cell:

\- I asked you what might have bothered you.

\- My Servants were fighting.

The answer didn't explain much for the A.I. It was the Mental Model of a Battleship built by extraterrestrials to resemble a Pacific War ship. As such, she knew nothing of the Grail War, its rules and the Seraph.

\- What is a Servant?

\- A heroic spirit invoked by the Moon Cell, replied Hakuno.

Under the beautiful black hair, Yamato's eyebrows are bent.

\- King Darius III and the man who was driving a war cart pulled by oxen... those who faced this Altera are Servants?

Hakuno agreed to that.

\- Altera is also a Servant?

-... I don't know?

As the Inheritor of the Moon gave her answer, she made virtual screens appear around her by attaching the ring to her finger. Texts and images were parading.

\- What are you doing, asked Yamato.

\- I ask the Moon Cell.

\- And?

Removing the translucent panels from an eye movement, Hakuno took a determined expression and acquiesced:

\- Altera is a Heroic Spirit.

Again, Yamato was annoyed with the literal way Hakuno Kishinami understood his questions. With one hand, she caressed the flower of fabric in her ear, and then swallowed a sip of tea before calmly clarifying her question:

\- I meant how it is that Velber also uses Heroic Spirits.

Yamato raised his hand, warning the Sovereign of the Moon Cell:

\- You don't have to say "I don't know!". Give me the answer directly from the Moon cell, Kishinami.

Hakuno Kishinami hesitated then stretched her will within the Regalia. The ring was like a highly compressed data maze, from millions of command code lines providing access to as many functions within the Moon Cell. Far too many lines of code for the last Master of the Moon Cell to find what she was looking for.

Pressing the ring on her chest, Hakuno reflected. There must have been some kind of instructions... In spirit, she returned to the root menu, and scrolled through the main functions. Still, it was necessary to understand them. What did "Quantum time lock" mean, for example... the Moon Cell could really send her back to the past, as a video game player reloaded his previous backup? Kishinami shivered. The power she commanded was beyond imagination. No wonder Velber wanted to take it. Many gods would dream of the power it could unleash with a thought... at least if the young Master figured out how to do it... because the complexity of the Regalia didn't make it as simple as it seemed. To say that she was just looking for a way to transmit data... "Communication"? It seemed promising. The Master crosses several interfaces seeking its way into a maze of sub-programs.

\- Ah!

She had just found it. Hakuno held out his hand as the Regalia lit up. Yamato rested his cup of tea when a thousand code tendrils passed through her firewalls with the delicacy of a herd of elephants in full panic.

In a very human gesture, she took her head with both hands, panting under the effect of the invasion of a real Data Niagara:

A titanic photonic crystal vessel drifting through the cosmos. Velber, the Umbral Star...

She saw the monstrous cosmic object release a sort of crystal splinter: an Anti-cells, a formidable weapon charged with destroying the civilizations encountered by Velber during his eternal wandering.

The Anti-cells, or Ark of Stars, was home to Sefar, the White Titan. He fell on the Moon... not the one orbiting the Earth that Yamato knew, but an almost similar moon, in a parallel universe. This Moon differed by the presence, in a crater, of a gigantic crystal cube that formed the heart of the prodigious computer known as Moon Cell. Everywhere photonic crystals veins ran in all the layers of the lunar soil.

Yamato saw Sefar plunder the Moon Cell, seize 80% of its resources and use them to create a double on this Earth of a distant past. There, the animals became mad, mutated and transformed into giant monsters while Sefar's double grew in size, becoming so high that his head was lost in the clouds. The civilizations would die. The gods perished, kings fell at the head of their armies, the heroes were powerless and the survivors of ancient cities fled into caves to carve into the rock a tragic warning for future generations.

But in a final effort, with its declining resources, the Moon Cell called the Once and Future King holding in its hands a divine construct: the true breath of the Star, the shinning torrent of life, forged by the planet as the crystallization of the wishes of the mankind: a Last Phantasm!  
Struck by the torrent of golden light, Yamato saw Sefar collapse. Taking advantage of the feedback felt by the real Sesar, the Moon Cell forced him to fall asleep and sealed him in a forbidden area: The Zero Dark.

The world had just undergone the Universal Flood, many gods had died and with their death, their age had just collapsed. The Earth had shifted to its axis, Atlantis, Mu and the Lemuria had sunk into the oceans. When the waves retreated, there were only a few scattered tribes of humanity clothed in animal skins.

Millennia passed by.

Yamato saw riders dressed in leather and fur. Little men with yellow skin, riding ponies and armed with composite bows. Their shamans surrounded the debris of what had been Sefar. Their magic collected sparks of power that still slept in the gigantic corpse. This light condensed between them in the form of a baby with brown skin marked with white tattoos. Her hair was silver and her eyes were red.

The vision became confused.

Now the child was a beautiful young woman wielding a sword formed by a rainbow. She rode at the head of the Hun armies, guiding them ever further into the Roman Empire... plundering cities, defeating armies, rushing a world to its downfall.

Everywhere the fire ravaged the cultivated fields and the cities turned into heaps of ruins: Attila, the Scourge of God!

Wanting to have a conquering leader capable of bringing them to glory, the Hun shamans had managed to create a hero that Velber could send to fight on Earth... in order to awaken the real Sefar who was still sleeping in the Zero Dark.

As the influx of data finally dried up, Yamato choked sought to regain his calm. Even an A.I. of the first order, like her, found her mind in disarray, terrified by what she had just learned.

If Altera released Sefar, nothing could stop the White Titan. The gods had been unable to do so... the notion of God incarnate and fighting among men seemed ridiculous but... the fight between Altera and Iskandar and Darius III was far too real.

Yamato took a terrified look at Hakuno Kishinami.

It was all on the shoulders of that teenage girl!

Only she could stop Sefar from waking up!

* * *

Near Roma (Italia)

Altera was watching the Fog's fleet stretching along the sea. There were many ships including the battleships _Littorio_, _Vittorio Veneto_ and _Roma_, the three most powerful battleships deployed in the Mediterranean by the Fog's _Regina Marina_ (the Italian royal navy). Obviously, they were trying to prevent their passage...

The king of the Huns turned to Iskandar, always accompanied by Waver Velvet.

\- I have to go to England.

The king of Macedonia rubbed his head with one hand and had a big smile:

\- Remember that you destroyed Gordeus's Wheel; it will reappear in a few days but...

Iskandar turned to Darius III, who dominated them all.

\- ... finally, not all of us will be able to make it on board.

Altera's expression became darker:

\- I must join Hakuno Kishinami, the Sovereign of the Moon Cell.

\- Oh... i See... You want a ship or a plane... mmm...

Iskandar rubbed his chin:

\- So I have no choice but to catch you one.

Waver startled while he was lighting a cigar. He glanced at his king who gave little doubt as to what he thought of his mental health. Far from being offended, the conqueror left with a vast burst of laughter, and flanked "a friendly pat" in the back of the Magus... lacking to make him fall to the ground.

\- You continue to doubt me, Waver. And yet, I have the strength of all those who have sworn loyalty to me. Come to me, Nearchus of Leto!

Waver's eyes opened as a mist appeared along the sea. Of course... Iskandar's army did not consist only of phalanxes. He had a navy... led by a Cretan... the _navarch_ (admiral) Nearchus.

Thirty ships emerged from the mist, ancient Greek trireme with the sails struck by the golden sun of Macedonia. A bronze ram was at the bow and multiple oars plunged into the water in cadence. While an officer was at the stern to operate the rudder oars, a dozen Hoplites and four archers were standing on the battle galleries.

Iskandar called Bucephalus and rode, before reaching out to Altera:

\- Accompany me, King of the Huns, so that you can choose a ship at your convenience.

\- So the flagship of this fleet!

The King of the Conquerors burst out laughing while hoisting the tiny young woman behind him. The horse left the ground, running among the clouds to take the lead of the galleys that were stinging towards the Fog fleet.

Waver Velvet - also known as lord el-Melloi II- took a breath of his cigar before giving a look at Darius III. The colossus returned him with a fierce face, and the Magus swallowed...

Since his participation in the Fuyuki's Grail War, he hasn't been bored for one day... Maybe that's what he missed the most, his classroom, his students and a lot of boredom. What would he not give to have homework to correct rather than to be there?

* * *

**Next episode: Second World War ships against Greek galleys, the ultima****te battle... somewhere between Midway and Salamis. Impossible everywhere else, possible only on Chimerical Lunar Seas of Steel.**


	11. Chapter 11 True Darkness

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, Archer is difficult (just a little). ****He quarrels with his Master, the enemies of his Master, allied Servants, friends of his Master, enemy Servants, uh... he quarrels with everyone! He is mocking, cynical, unpleasant, ironic... yet he breaks hearts! Anyway, with Archer/Shiro, the girls who are looking to kill him and the girls who are looking to join him in his bed are... the same! And then girls try to make me believe they don't like bad boys. For Waver, nope! He's nostalgic for the time he was a professor, not the time he was a student.**

**Snickering Fox: Thank You. For the Moon Cell, it's true but gender is confusing for me in English, I have generally no idea if a thing is a "he" a "she" or an "it", and my translations are mostly automatics ones. **

**Xirons20: Thank. Yamato is going to find out how oppressive, stifling the Moon Cell can be... and she's a high-performance A.I. designed to run a war fleet... not to play extras in a reconstituted high school on... no... IN the moon.**

* * *

**True Darkness**

The battleship _Roma_ had been the pride of the fascist war fleet... until it was sunk by the Germans after the Italian armistice. The version created by the Fog looked outwardly like its model, a warship of the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, like all her peers, she was built of nano-materials and equipped with weapons of great sophistication.

_Roma_ was advancing along the coast, raising a powerful bow blade, surrounded by the energy shield of his Klein's field.

Around her, there were cruisers and smaller ships making up her escort. This squadron blasted at good speed, preceded by other fleets of similar composition which surrounded the other battleships of the Italian fleet of the Fog: _Conte di Cavour_, _Guilo Cesare_, _Leonardo da Vinci_, _Andreo Doria_, _Caio Duillio_, _Littorio_, _Vittorio Venetto_ et _Impero_.

In all, the _Regia Marina_ brought together seven heavy cruisers, sixteen light cruisers and ninety-one smaller ships, distributed among the various wings.

By tonnage and firepower, this was the Fog's fourth fleet. It was completed by spreading in a circle to trap the force it faced... two hundred Greek triremes that advanced towards the armada by the force of the oars, their sails adorned with the sun - emblem of the kingdom of Macedonia- slamming into the wind. Above the bronze spur at their bow, eyes had been painted.

The naval battle that was about to begin seemed to have been imagined by an Hollywood writer in serious need of inspiration. Not only was it improbable but, at first sight, totally unbalanced.

For any combat force, the triremes were satisfied with ten hoplites and four archers while the ships of the Fog could count on the bristling turrets of many cannons that now turned to their enemies...

The battle promised to be short. How could ancient galleys fight against invincible alien ships even for the weapons of the twenty-first century?

Except that it was the war fleet of Nearchus of Leto, part of the _Ionioi Hetairoi_, the Noble Phantasm of Iskandar.

* * *

The main turrets of the _Roma_, nine 381 mm L/50 Ansaldo 1934 guns in three triple turret, turned to the enemy. The cannons opened up like origami before spitting out corrosive green plasma projectiles. The secondary armament, twelve 152 mm (6.0 in) L/55 Ansaldo Model 1934 guns in four triple turrets, drew laser beams. The fiery projectiles and dazzling beams are distributed between only three triremes.

Around the flagship, the escorts opened fire in their turn and each wing targeted the Macedonian warships.  
The energy deployment was such that, all over the planet, sensors reacted, sounding the alarm.  
Nothing seemed to be able to withstand that hellfire. The water boiled under the impact of the shots, gushing out in geyser as vapor benches as thick as in a sauna were born.  
On the bridge of the _Roma_, the three Mental Models of the battleship - beautiful young brunettes in a Renaissance dress - as out of a painting by Sandro Botticelli - exchanged smiles. The battle had just begun.

However...

Roma III frowned, her eyes dancing around the virtual screens that formed a dome around her. On each of them appeared various sensor indications, radars, thermal cameras and...

\- Impossible! The triremes were not damaged!

Roma I and Roma II jumped up and waved their own virtual screens. However, they could only see that their sister was right. Although targeted by weapons capable of sinking modern ships with a single shot, the pathetic wooden ships advanced without appearing inconvenient. No shields were protecting the triremes, but the shots give the impression to be only raindrops and water gun.

\- How is this possible, says Roma I, who has become white as chalk.

The three A.I. exchanged appalled glances without being able to present an explanation. They did not of course know that a Noble Phantasm was a creation of magic and that what it created- like the triremes and the Servants who formed its crew- could only be destroyed by a still stronger magic, like another Poble Phantasm or a Servant.

\- They are ghosts, say a strangled Roma II, ships pulled from the bottom of the ocean, with crews of drowned sailors coming out of the prisons of Neptune!

In fact, the Model Mental was not wrong... They were ships and crews returning from the dead, invoked by the Holy Grail. As such they were composed of _prana_ and could not be affected by non-magic attacks.

* * *

One of the war galleys was advancing like a large spider with multiple legs. At the stern, under the canvas canopy, the master gave orders to the helmsman holding the two large oars protruding on either side of the stern and acting as the rudder.

Obeying the instructions he had just received, the helmsman had the trireme slanted so that it pointed its spur towards the destroyer _Saetta_. The Fog ship could not use her corrosives torpedoes because her sonar could not locate the galley clearly... because this sort of ancient warship doesn't have a clear acoustic signature. Her 2X2 - 120 mm (4.7 in) guns don't have much power, the plasma shots bounced helplessly against the gallery of the upper rowers while the laser shots of its 2X40 mm "pom-pom" AA guns swept the combats galleries, touching archers and hoplites... but without hurting them.

Devoid of Mental Model, the _Saetta_ could only continue to fire, unable to find a backup plan without the ingenuity peculiar to humans.

The captain leaned over the drummer:

\- Rate of attack!

The colossus with his bare torso began hammering his two drums covered with skin. The galley's crew bent over the oars, plunging them at a steady pace into the sea water. The Macedonian trireme leaped forward and the bronze spur struck the Klein's field surrounding the _Saetta_. The latter flushed for a moment and then collapsed!

The energy screen, capable of stopping an artillery barrage, had just been driven by a weapon as primitive as a galley spur! Far from being surprised, the archers took advantage of it to throw a volley of projectiles on the huge and high ship that was approaching. Before the Macedonian trireme struck its side, the arrows caused tears in the hull and destroyed a turret as if it were made of butter. The hoplites then rushed on deck, sweeping the robots made of nano-machines that tried to stop them, they entered the bowels of the destroyer, destroying its machines and eventually destroying the destroyer's alpha Core. The _Saetta_ disappeared then, loosening herelf into a dust of nano-machines.

* * *

Ten or so similar clashes had taken place off the coast of Italy. In each case, the Servants had prevailed over the futuristic technology of the Fog. Heroes - even minors ones- had nothing to fear from beings without magical abilities.

Roma I had recovered somewhat from her surprise. From the bridge of the battleship whose name it bore, the Mental Model saw the battle turn into complete chaos. Everywhere Fog ships sank. Their weapons were powerless against the primitive ships that attacked them. They also could not use missiles or torpedoes because the galleys could not be locked by sonar and radars because they were made of wood and had no thruster.

However, Roma still had a weapon that could turn the course of the fight.

The noise on the battlefield was suddenly covered by a clamor similar to an entire orchestra of the brass family, completely out of tune. Torn from the surface of the sea, the battleship _Roma_ rose several tens of meters above the waves while her front opened like a flower to discover... her Supergravitation Cannon. Simultaneously, she releases two spheres, which placed themselves on the sides of the ship. Hyperphysical phenomena appeared, fantastic glimmers or powerful electric arcs uniting the sky and the sea, while a sphere of energy pulsated and magnified before the mouth of the cannon.

Like the Red Sea before Moses, the Mediterranean opened before the _Roma_ in a deep trench that uncovered the seabed between two walls of water. Torn from the waves, dozens of galleys were now floating in the air.

The wind had forced into a real hurricane that roared like a thousand demons. No one could hear each other anymore. Hundreds of kilometers away, the machines broke down without explanation, burned by the force of the electromagnetic impulses of the cannon loading, while thunderstorms broke out all over the Italian peninsula.

And then...

A glimmer more dazzling than the rising of a thousand suns blinded all who looked towards the _Roma_. Supergravitation Cannon had just fired a ray of pure destruction. The galleys seized by the gravitational forces disappeared in a moment. They were supposed to be invincible to anything that didn't fall under the most powerful exercises of thaumaturgy except that... not a Magus had imagined that technology could create a ray of energy capable of generating gravitational waves destroying matter to subatomic level.

* * *

Aboard the _Roma_, the Mental Models congratulated themselves. They had just destroyed a fifth of the enemy fleet in one attack. The other cruisers and battleships were now tearing themselves away from the waters, preparing to use their own Gravitational Cannons. With this weapon, the Fog could win against Velber...

\- You are a bad civilization!

The three A.I. with the appearance of beautiful Italian women faced the two intruders who had taken advantage of the diversion of the Macedonian fleet to land on board. The woman who had just spoken looked like a teenage girl with bistrée skin, dressed in a white "garment" that covered her little more than a bikini. His snow hair was covered with a long veil of fine gauze and they pointed to the Mental Models a sword with a rainbow blade.

Behind her was a red-bearded colossus wearing antique armor decorated with bronze inlays, shoulders wrapped in a long scarlet and gold cape lined with fur. He held a black horse by the bridle. He burst out laughing:

\- We cannot say that you are holding back. Will you not join my army?

* * *

Velber struck at that moment.

Above the naval battle, it was as if a giant fist struck the vault of the sky. Cracks appeared there. It was a shock to the A.I. of the Fog, creatures born of science. Like glass hurt by a stone that had been thrown, the sky now had a spider web pattern formed by cracks. Impossibility... a naive nightmare out of the brains of children or gullible primitives... Yet all saw this incomprehensible phenomenon.

An even more violent second blow preceded the breaking of the sky... opening a door on an otherwise unspeakable place. With their eyes up, the Mental Models saw a black and violet mist swelling on the other side of the tear.

For a human eye there would be nothing else discernible, but they were much more than human. This "mist" consisted of infinity of dark cubic crystals of all sizes. An abyss of Photonic crystals.

They had only a moment to question the phenomenon before the photonic crystals surged to form an octopus of darkness with multiple tentacles reaching towards the vessels that maneuvered to escape it. He was an even more incomprehensible new enemy than the previous ones. In any case, he was acting as such.

Forgetting Altera and Iskandar, Roma gave orders to flee what was chasing them and to stop them by making use of all their weapons.

In vain.

Lasers, plasma projectiles and missiles did not stop the advance of this miasma entity. One ship after another, the Fog's fleet was engulfed in the whirlwind of photonic crystals. For a while the Klein's field seemed to resist and then... the crystals phrased through the protection, becoming translucent before rematerializing on the other side.

* * *

Iskandar looked around at the black crystals swirling over the metal bridge. Recognizing him as an ally, they largely avoided him to jump inside the battleship or wrap up the three Mental Models of the _Roma_. The young women were rolling down, screaming with pain and terror...  
The King of the Conquerors turned to Altera. The Scourge of God contemplated the scene with a calm face but as if carved in stone:

\- What is going on?

\- Velber takes possession of this Fog fleet.

The colossus retreated one step, as if struck in the face. His bushy eyebrows frowned. He had known war, battles, as a man, as much as a king before his death, and much more as Heroic Servant. However, what he saw seemed to him... how to say it... wrong... simply wrong.  
Iskandar believed in fair confrontation against an adversary, strength against strength, intelligence against intelligence. He who was defeated submitted himself to the victor who spared him, benefiting in return from his strength.

His eyes swept the bridge and the structures of the _Roma_. The battleship blackened, metamorphosing into something else. The photonic crystals that melted into its mass of nano-materials transformed it into a simple extension of Velber. As for the girls who were in charge... he couldn't turn a blind eye to the fact that what they were going through was rape.

With a hard face, Iskandar turned again to Altera:

\- Velber is evil.

The King of the Huns showed a tiny hesitation and then nodded before turning her eyes, as if shameful.

As for Iskandar, he had made his decision. He could not bear that Velber intervened in the fight against the Fog fleet. Moreover, he did not accept the way he had forced the Mental Models to serve him.

He was lucky to have been defeated by Altera, who had since treated him more as an ally than as a defeated enemy. However, whatever loyalty he felt towards her, it did not extend in any way to her creator.

The tyrant's iron fist always ended up yielding to the liberator's sword. He had seen it more than once. Especially when the benefactor in question had internal complicities...

As Iskandar rubbed his chin, absorbed in his reflections, the sky had regained its usual appearance. On the other hand, the Fog's ships, while retaining the same general look, had changed profoundly. Their hulls now seemed to consist of the multitudinous assembly of square crystals with a black, smooth and shiny appearance. Here and there, or could see keys of color: yellow, orange, green that emphasized the sinister appearance of the whole.

The _Regina Marina_ had fallen into Velber's hands.

A new toy of destruction for the Umbral Star.

* * *

The image projected in the middle of the office of the Assistant Secretary of Military Affairs Ryujiro Kamikage was translucent and trembling, chopped by parasites. Reception was poor. In this, not surprisingly, she came literally from the other side of the world. However, the energy surges that appeared on the virtual screen probably generated disturbances that better explained the poor image quality than the distance from the transmitter.

Ships from the Fog were facing a storm of darkness. The ships were not being destroyed. The ships were not being destroyed. Nevertheless, a kind of crystal leprosy infected the ships, turning them into something else... foreign.

Gunzo Chihaya, commander of the Blue Steel fleet, had seen incredible things. However, there he reached the limits of his tolerance. A sky that broke like glass? An entity of photonic crystal?

He turned his eyes away from the holographic projection... to look at Iona standing next to him. Wearing a brown t-shirt and shorts, she looked like an ordinary teenage girl. However, the strange luminous tattoos that appeared by the moment on her skin referred to her as a Fog Mental Model. The A.I. of I-401 was quietly analyzing the situation.

\- Iona, what do you think of all this? Is it a montage?

Gunzo knew that whoever was sending these images was listening, but he couldn't wait for the answer.  
The Mental Model blinked with his pale eyes and nodded seriously, without answering. Iona was not the type to launch into long explanations. Within a few steps, So Oribe was activated on his graphic tablet, it was he who developed, showing him his analysis on an appendix screen:  
\- Images show no evidence of digital cloning. In addition, the I-401 aircraft identified large-scale gravity manipulation and time spatial distortions. Something is really happening off the coast of Italy... a catastrophe like we've never seen before.

In the foreground of the film screened in 3D appeared the face of a young girl. She has long wavy brown hair and eyes, and wears a brown female school uniform with a blue ribbon around the neck:  
\- But this is happening now.

Gunzo pinched the lips:

\- And this Velber is trying to take over the entire Fog war fleet?

The girl simply nodded. Another girl of silent type, thought the leader of the Blue Steel force.

\- What does Velber want? To take all the knowledge in the world? And for that, he wants to use the Fog fleet?

New acquiescence, this time, however, Hakuno Kishinami said:

\- Velber often uses the natural enemies of his prey. He makes them stronger and takes control.

Kyohei, the Arming Officer of the I-401, intervenes:

\- The Fog is just that for Velber? A weapon he can dispose of?

As Hakuno tilt his head as if asking him to repeat the question, the young man forgot everything he wanted to say. In fact, he thought only of his precious collection of manga heroine figurines and video games... He suddenly wanted to leave the living room to try to melt a new effigy to the appearance of the pretty Kishinami. Despite her monotonous look, she had something strangely adorable.

Gunzo Chihaya coughed in his fist to regain his capacity... in fact; all the occupants of the room seemed strangely affected:

\- What do you think you're doing, Kishinami-chan?

\- I have an agreement with Yamato, and together we will fight Altera and we would like you to join us.

The Blue Steel Force Leader stood up and shouted:

\- You're not serious. You just saw what she did with the _Regina Marina_!

A troubled moment, however, Kishinami displayed a resolute air:

\- I am not alone! I have friends and allies. I can also count on the support of the Moon Cell. This world is in danger of destruction. We have to stop Velber.

This was the longest sentence Hakuno has said since he arrived on this alternative version of Earth.  
Gunzo smiled. Who was he to try to prevent someone from risking his life to protect others? He looked at his own friends around him. So, Kyohei, Iori, Shizuka... his crew, once again they were around him, assuring him of their support. And beside him, Iona nodded:

\- I'm your ship, Gunzo.

The chief of the Blue Steel fleet turned to the screen:

\- You can count on us.


	12. Chapter 12 Alchemy

**Boyzilla: yes, her cute-power is a Noble Phantasm Ex-Rank ! No-one is safe... ****Just look at the difference in Gilgamesh's behavior between Fate/Extra CCC and Fate/Stay Night! Even the Hero King is not immune!**

**Ultima-Owner: That's the power difference between the Fog and Velber! While this fleet of extraterrestrial ships effortlessly dominates the humanity of the twenty-first century, for the Umbral Star, they are just as insignificant one as the other.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, and I think, you will love her new ally !**

**Author note: First of all, I apologize for not writing for the last two weeks, but a lot has happened on my end. Most are of no interest to you. As for Fan-Fiction, I started a new text (Fate/ Dragoncrown) a crossover between Fate/Stay Night (first route) and the video game series The Elder Scroll. I invite you to discover it. Look in my profile to find a link to Fate/Dragoncrown.**

**The twelfth episode (already) of Chimeric Lunar Sea of Steel is before you. It will be less serious than the previous ones with the appearance of a character who could be the twin sister of Taiga "don't call me Tiger" Fujimura... if she were a warship.**

**Alchemy**

To see so many warships, docked in the southern ports of England, it would have been necessary to return to the time of the preparation of Overlord, the landing operation in Normandy. Several of the Fog's fleets had come together to transform the British Isles into an unspeakable bastion. As in the previous century, they served as a backward base for an operation aimed at liberating Europe... conquered in a few days by the legions of the Umbral Star.

Nevertheless, even if a part of the American fleet of the Fog; of the English fleet; the totality of the French fleet; German, as well as some survivors of the Italian fleet were gathered there, no one had any illusions about the possibilities of victory.

The ships of the _Regina Marina_ corrupted by Velber had become invincible. The few skirmishes that had taken place over the past few days had terrified all observers. Whatever weapons were used, the Black Ships of the Umbral fleet were not damaged. On the contrary, the responses of the modified vessels had revealed that their firepower had increased by at least 30%.

* * *

\- We're all gonna die!

The strangled call came out of the mouth of Kyohei Kashihara, weapons officer of I-401. With his hands tense on the armrest, he swallowed as he watched the sea leapt towards the shuttle, which was carrying out its reintegration into the atmosphere.

It is true that for a sailor, the vision was more than impressive.

In spacesuit and strapped in the neighboring chair So Oribe lifted a finger towards the sky:  
\- There is no danger. The shuttle was modified by the Fog and we have an antigravity system that protects us from the effects of acceleration. As for our trajectory, it allows us to avoid passing within range of the Black Fleet of Velber.

Kneeling in the pilot's seat, Iona the Mental Model of I-401 was controlling the shuttle without touching the instrument panel as A.I. she was controlling it remotely by the sheer force of her thought. The co-pilot's seat was occupied by a second Mental Model, Hyuga formed flaship of the fog sunk by I-401 and the actual port operator of the main base of the Blue Steel Fleet. The two girls had reflexes of the order of the millisecond and no human could hope to compete with their intelligences... especially that of Hyuga, always experimenting with new hybrids of human/Fog technology. She turned to Gunzo Chihaya:

\- Landing in top... three minutes.

\- Good.

The young Japanese man hardly showed his emotions. Behind the windowpane of his spacesuit, he seemed to be of marble. Yet he was mentally preparing for a painful encounter... his father whom he believed to have died led the Fog fleet in Europe. Had he betrayed humanity? Yet who else than his father could have sent the I-401 to him? And in this case, what game did he play? Even if Velber's arrival changed everything, making the confrontation between the Fog and humanity obsolete, these questions tortured him.

* * *

Three aircraft carriers, including MN _Béarn_ and HMS _Illustrious_, had been dispatched to the area to retrieve the shuttle. But it was the HMS _Ark Royal_ closest to the landing site. Caught in the gravity beams emitted by the carrier, the shuttle was lifted out of the water and laid on deck. The three fleets grouped around their flagship turned around, heading for the port of Liverpool. The latter was at the centre of an industrial activity which the city had not experienced since the beginning of its decline in 1970.

When I am told "Liverpool", the first thing I think of is the Beatles. The famous band is from the city. Others talk about soccer. But this is all anecdotal. The port of Liverpool is the first of the British Isles, 40% of England's foreign trade passes through its docks and this since the nineteenth century.  
During the Second World War, it was from underground premises located under the city that were led the fleets fighting against the Nazi U-boats that were trying to stifle the British Empire. Very logically, she had just regained her position as the nerve center of defense against the new enemy of the world, Velber. This is where we tried to find a solution to the invulnerability of the Black Fleet. A teenage girl had to play a key role.

* * *

Archer turned to Hakuno:

\- Are you ready?

The girl nodded with a determined air and held out her right arm, palm forward, supporting him with her other arm.

\- Go ahead, go ahead!

Archer speaks to a Mental Model on the deck of a Tyne-class destroyer refueller, immobilized off Liverpool. The young girl spread around her multiple energy rings, located in the centre of a dazzling beam of light. The supply ship opened up like a Japanese fold. Leaving the shape of a ship, he transformed into an open structure formed by multiple rings. On the docks, blocks of nanomaterials began to sway gradually from the solid state to that of a dust veil, converging in long ribbons towards the refueller transformed into... ship matrix.

As Mark Twain so eloquently put it, advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and the Fog proved it brilliantly. Between the arches of the factory ship, the currents of nanoparticles passing through the air assembled to form the ethereal silhouette of a warship. Despite the feat of force carried out under the eyes of Hakuno Kishinami, this type of battle cruiser of the Fog remained totally powerless against the ships modified by Velber. At least let things go their normal way.

Hakuno camped firmly on her legs and closed her eyes. The Regalia sparkled on her finger as her mind navigated through the gigantic register of heavily compressed programs that formed the ring. Sweat appeared on her forehead as she concentrated.

Between the arches of the factory ship, the nanoparticles began to radiate and the silhouette of the cruiser being materialized fluctuated... accumulating energy provided by the Moon Cell. Suddenly, the powerful warship emerged from the silver dust mist, gaining in density.

In a matter of seconds, she completed the formation... of a gigantic cruiser full of artillery, anti-aircraft and machine guns, dominated by a command tower with antennae and observation binoculars.

A battleship of the _Ise_ class... the _Hyuga_.

Drained of his energy, Hakuno fell to his knees, gasping loudly.

\- Extraordinary!

Looking up, Hakuno turned to discover... a giant egg! It levitated a few centimeters from the ground, a huge metal egg with three liquid crystal screens arranged in a triangle! The two on the top showed... eyes and the one on the bottom a... smiling mouth... all drawn with big pixels!

\- Oh... but you're so cute! What's your name? Asked the egg.

With round eyes, the Inheritor of the Moon looked at the... thing in front of her. Even after everything she'd seen during the Grail War, she was discovering things that would leave her utterly speechless.  
\- ... Hakuno Kishinami...

\- It was you who defeated a Fog fleet with only one submarine?!

\- ... Ye...ssss ?

The egg opened, revealing that it was a kind of (very) strange means of individual displacement. The upholstered interior had a chair and a control panel. He came out... finally; rather he _leaped_ out a young woman dressed in a turtleneck sweater under a researcher's white blouse and a miniskirt. Her face had something cat-like and she had a monocle in her right eye. Throwing herself at Hakuno, the unknown woman held her against her with an uncommon force.

\- A beautiful and relentless war goddess, quite my kind. Soooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuute!

Her "show of affection" did not please everyone. Kanshou and Bakuya landed on either side of her neck. While Archer's absolutely icy voice dropped the temperature a few degrees across the harbor:  
\- Let go of my Master!

While Jane Doe was squinting on both Chinese swords, a pretty little girl with silver hair approached. She was in shorts and on her t-shirt you could see a logo representing a bird in a circle surrounded by "Blue Steel" letters.

\- Excuse me, sir!

Taking the egg-girl by the collar, she pulled her violently back and then raised her arm shouting:

\- Manual restart!

The little girl took a monumental blow on the top of the skull of the girl-egg who rolled on the floor holding her head with two hands:

\- Ow... it hurts! It hurts!

Then the silver-haired girl turned to Hakuno and Archer, quite amazed:

\- I'm Iona, Mental Model of the I-401, the one on the ground is Hyuga. Thank you for rebuilding her ship. Behind me are the other members of the Blue Steel force, including its leader, Gunzo Chihaya.

The Japanese she had just pointed out, a handsome young man dressed in an elegant business suit. He took two steps forward and reached out to Hakuno. The latter rose to tighten his:

\- Nice to meet you, Kishinami-san. Can I ask what you did at the Battleship _Hyuga_?

\- I turned her into a Mystical Code.

\- Excuse-me?

\- Say... some sort of magic object.

* * *

The members of the Blue Steel Fleet were gathered in a suite of armchairs and a sofa that surrounded a small table that hosted several cups of tea filled by Archer. There were the two Mentals Models Hyuga and Iona; Gunzo Chihaya, their chief; So Oribe first mate of the I-401; Kyohei Kashihara weapon officer; Iori Watanuki, engineer; Shizuka Hazumi, sonar operator of the submersible.  
They formed a circle arch turned towards Hakuno Kishinami. Oribe - a man always wearing a plastic helmet with an autonomous air supply- turned to the Victor of the Grail War:

\- First of all, I don't believe in magic!

Uncomfortable, Hakuno bit her lips without knowing what to say, but Archer did it instead:

\- We are talking about Magecraft, not magic.

Resting his cup after taking a sip of it, Hazumi - a thin little Japanese girl wearing big glasses- spoke:  
\- What is the difference?

\- There are only five forms of real magic. Each is like a miracle, like traveling between worlds, going back in time. Their practitioners are called Magicians. They are very rare and are practically half-gods. Magecraft is just another way of doing things. You can look at it as a science that hasn't been equated.  
So Oribe shook his head:

\- Another form of science?

\- Do you want proof?

Archer stood up and took an unused cup from the desert. He threw it violently against a wall where it broke into three pieces. Gathering them together, he placed them on the table:

\- To repair this cup it would be enough to use glue... or Magecraft.

Archer concentrated and laid hands on the debris. Luminous circuits appeared along his arms then... the broken cup dissipated before reforming, intact. He stooped in a free chair, legs crossed and the past behind the backrest:

\- This may sound impressive, but it does not exceed human capacity.

Hyuga had not left Archer with her eyes, impressed. The Mental Model had far superior means of seeing to humans and its artificial senses covered virtually the entire range of existing detectors.  
\- You have bonded the material at the molecular level. However, I don't know what technology you used; I only sensed an increase in heat along the veins of your arms and a luminous phenomenon.  
\- These are my Magic Circuits, they transform the _Od_, the latent magic energy or if you prefer the living energy; in _Prana_, the magic energy usable.

\- Magic Circuits?

\- Let's say an artificial nervous system needed to practice Magecraft.

Others wanted to ask questions, but Gunzo raised his hand to impose silence:

\- This is not the most important thing. Let's stick to the definition of Archer-san, Magecraft is another technology not equated. But that doesn't explain why the Fog ships captured by Velber became invulnerable.  
Archer had one of his sarcastic smiles that made those who saw him boil with rage:  
\- Try to break the cup I fixed.

Challenged, Kyohei Kashihara rose and struck the cup with her bare hands... before jumping away, shaking a swollen hand, a big tear in the corner of his eye:

\- Ouch!

As Iori rushed to examine her friend, Iona stepped forward. The Mental Model of the I-401 analyzed the object and held out her hand. A translucent light sheet, a hexagonal panel of a Klein shield, appeared in front of the cup and struck it. The object ripped off from the table and sank into the wall... intact.

As everyone turned to Archer, he showed his empty hands in a gesture of innocence... false and annoying, before winking at Iona.

The Mental Model leaned her head aside. In her unemotional way, she seemed completely disconcerted:  
\- Cup analysis: porcelain object. Attack energy: 600,000 joules, equivalent to a mass of 1,000 kg launched at 135 km/h. Error...

She turned to Gunzo:

\- This is... illogical!

The Blue Steel Force Chief had risen to examine the cup embedded in the wall and shook his head:

\- Archer-san, what did you do to that cup?

\- This is called "Reinforcement". It is a technique of Magecraft that strengthens some useful property, here hardness, without modifying the others. This is a temporary change. The _Prana_ I infused in the cup will dissipate in a few hours and it will become regular again.

Gunzo nodded his head in a slow and serious movement. He had not lost sight of his original question and turned to Hakuno, who remained silent:

\- And you did the same thing with the _Hyuga_? You strengthened her, Kishinami-san.  
The latter shook her head, while glaring at Archer's help:

\- No, I made it a Mystical Code.

The Servant sighed with feigned resignation, but in fact quite amused by the inability of his Master to communicate. The sovereign of the Moon Cell was actually a shy teenager with a big problem talking to others. Archer still remembered how Matou Shinji took advantage of this...

\- As my Master told you earlier, she turned the _Hyuga_ into... let's say a magic object. Unlike the cup, she has its own source of _Prana_. Her weapons doing magic damage are now able to touch creatures like heroic Servants: Altera, Iskandar and his army... and the _Regina Marina_ ships modified by Velber.  
So Oribe nodded:

\- So this is Magecraft?!

\- In fact, no... I am a Magus and I practice Magecraft, my Master is a Wizard, she practices Spiritual Hacking. A magic existing only in the virtual universe of computer networks and using spells called "Code Cast".

The members of Blue Steel looked at each other, completely lost, except for Hyuga:

\- Okay, so Hakuno Kishinami is casting spells in the virtual universe... except that the changes in my naval corps are real.

Archer and Hakuno exchanged a look, the teenager in brown school uniform pressed the hand what carries the Regalia on her chest:

\- I give orders to the Moon Cell, but this computer controls reality.

\- So your virtual Cast Codes affect the physical world... because the Moon Cell can change the rules of the universe for your benefit.

Hakuno nodded his head.

\- And Velber has the same powers?

\- I... I think so.

\- So Velber wants to take you because you can counter it?

The teenager responded with a new positive nod. Her shoulders collapsed as she looked at the floor:  
\- I'm sorry. I... didn't know anything about Velber until I came to this world. I didn't know I was going to attract it.

Hyuga pounded her eyelashes and opened them, her eyes turned into big pink hearts. Rose in gale force she pressed Hakuno in a bear hug without realizing that the girl was desperately struggling to free herself:

\- The Blue Steel force exists to protect the innocent (especially when they are as pretty as you).

Archer tackled a hand on his face, the classic facepalm: "But how does my Master to attract the passionate love of all the lunatics of the cosmos"? It seemed to him to hear a shout of protest pushed in chorus by a Roman tyrant dressed in red and a fox woman in mini-kimono... they had to feel targeted unless they were jealous of Hyuga?


	13. Chapter 13 The Invincible Armada

**Boyzilla: My mother is Buddhist and Prana, karma, kundilani, dharma, samsarra are words I hear every week. And Prana is "latent energy" or "free energy" (and sex via tantrism rituals is a good method for accumulate it). But Type Moon esoteric vocabulary is a strange medley of Japanese terms (like "od"), Sanskrit (like "mana") with a not very good translation in English. **

**Akasha Blooriver: Hakuno Noble Phantasm: "Head tilt" is an Ex rank one. **

**PikaMew1288: I don't think so... she hates the idea of sharing HER gold with others. **

**Ultima-Owner: That was the point. The readers wanted more cute scenes and I listen to my readers.**

**Author Notes: with this chapter, Chimeric Lunar Sea of steel reaches the last straight line, the final fight begins.** **With this chapter also begins the resolution of my history... and you will see that I have a real plan and that we had to pay attention to the details.**

* * *

**The Invincible Armada**

The _Giulio Cesare_ was an impressive ship, a battleship of 577 ft 5 in length with three triple 12 in turrets and two twin turret of the same caliber for principal armament; eighteen 4.7 in turrets; fourteen 4 in guns; three 17,7 in torpedoes tubes.

It was of course a ship of the Fog and so it was built in nanomaterial with the usual improvements for this type of battleships: three Mentals Models, wave force armor, quantum communication network, Corrosive torpedoes, Klein's field, VLS missile launcher.

However, the ship belonged to the Italian squadron of the Mediterranean and, like most of the ships of the _Regina Marina_, had been captured by Velber. The Umbral Star had spread through the systems of these vessels like a virus. The effect had been overwhelming. In just a few minutes, the alien super-computer had infected the Union Core of all the ships in the fleet and even physically modified the functioning of the ships.

In fact, this was Velber's usual conquest strategy. On every planet it visited in its quest for looting, it infected the main predators of the dominant species to turn them into monsters, most often by increasing strength and size. They formed the army of its principal servants, the Anti-cells.  
Of course, the Earth no longer feared the prehistoric animals that had served at Velber twelve thousand years earlier... for the good reason that they had disappeared, precisely because of Velber. The mutant creatures that it had infected became crazy and lost any ability to reproduce. But the _Regina Marina_ ships were a perfect replacement for the missing predators.  
The Umbral Star had put its mark on the captured vessels. Most of the Fog's ships had light-colored hulls with fluorescent seals that represented the identity of the Mental Model who commanded them. But the _Regina Marina_ now had dark hulls as cut into black crystal, orange or dark green markings finished giving them a gloomy look.

On the deck of the _Giulio Cesare_ was activated a crew formed of black photonic crystal creatures called "Attack-Type programs". There were also two apparently human creatures. The first was a red-bearded colossus. He was wearing a red bronze armor inlaid with gold and a red cape with a white fur collar. A short sword was on his belt. Thoughtful, he looked at the horizon.  
Behind him, the second man had long black hairs; he dressed in an elegant tuxedo under a red over. Using colored chalk, he drew pentacles within a large magic circle decorated with complex glyphs and invocations in ancient Greek. The entire figure was centered on a bronze barrel.

The giant turned to his comrade:

\- Waver, you remember the arrival of Velber... the moment when the vault of the sky seemed to break to let this tide of darkness pass ?

Waver Velvet, Lord El-Melloi II, looked up from his delicate work:

\- My King, there would be cause for concern if I said I had forgotten. I'd love to... but it's real, it happened... and we're fighting for Velber.

Iskandar vigorously rubbed the back of his skull with a big smile that widely uncovered his teeth:  
\- Yes? ... well... that's kind of the problem. You see when I was young my father took me on a diplomatic mission. It was the custom at the time to recruit Gallic warlords as mercenaries, and I had to make contact with a group that had just landed in Greece in search of a contract. There was a very watered evening and we were very drunk when I asked the chief of the Gauls what he feared the most in the world. As I had spent the day maneuvering my troops in front of them to convince them to rally me, I expected them to say "you, O Iskandar" and you know what they said?  
Waver rested his chalk and sighed:

\- They told you that they only feared that the sky would fall on their heads, but that they would place the friendship of a man like you above everything.

Iskandar's expression was comical, it displayed the most perfect surprise:

\- How do you know?

\- Because Ptolemy Sôter and Arrien report it in their books.

Hands on hips, the King of the Conqueror rolled with a loud laugh:

\- That is the whole problem of celebrity; nothing can be said under the influence of drink without it becoming a source of historical phrases.

Waver shook his head thinking of the "peoples" of his time caught up with paparazzi cameras. Then he frowned:

\- Why are you even talking to me about this?

\- Don't you think that with the arrival of Velber, we saw the sky fall on our heads?  
The former magic teacher stood up shaking his coat, then took out his cigar case. With mechanical gestures, he lit a rolled tobacco cylinder while reflecting.

\- It is possible... yes... but it is to ask how they knew about Velber. The Celtic civilization appeared in Austria, not far from the tomb of Sefar. Maybe the ancient Celtic magi had visions of the past and knew that the White Titan threat was only dormant, still threatening the world. However, I don't see the point in speculating on this subject, especially since...

The explanation of the Magus was interrupted by the appearance of Altera... finally of her holographic image. The King of the Huns was on the Admiral's battleship, the _Roma_:

\- Iskandar, is your fleet ready?

The king of Macedonia crossed his arms on his strong chest:

\- My men waiting for my order.

Altera's eyes turned to the bronze cauldron and Waver:

\- What is this?

Iskandar was surprised and embarrassed, displaying a broad unnatural smile:

\- Oh... Waver is a Magus and it's a Magus thing. They always do stuff like that.

Looking up at the sky Waver Velvet intervened:

\- It is a ritual to favor our fleet in battle.

\- Ah... go on, Magus.

Her satisfied curiosity, the image of Altera disappeared without an unnecessary greeting. She was really strange... Waver turned to his king, rubbing his forehead sharply:

\- I cannot believe that you have won so many battles with so little talent for improvisation. You almost screwed everything.

The red colossus had the good taste to appear contrite:

\- At least I hope it will serve us well.

\- If what is said about the Victor of the Moon Cell Grail War is true, he is a brilliant strategist, she will give us the opportunity to use my trap.

\- If it works.

Waver shrugged his shoulders:

\- Mythology is on my side and - as a Magus- I am only proud of my knowledge of _formalcraft_. Ritual magic is very powerful... it can even trap a god.

The Magus with long black hair stared at the magic circle. The incantations that covered the armored bridge canalized the power of two giants of Greek mythology: Ephialtes and Otos, sons of Poseidon and Ephimedia, more known as "the Aloades".

* * *

The teenage girl in a brown school uniform sneezed, covering her nose with her hands. The sound stifled for a moment the strategic discussions that were taking place in the Liverpool headquarter. All eyes turned to her and Hakuno blushed, embarrassed to suddenly find herself in the center of attention. Drake giggled:

\- Would anyone talk about you, girlie? A secret lover maybe?

The Inheritor of the Moon Cell blushes even more and her panic makes Rider laugh. She seemed to enjoy the innocent reactions of her young Master. On the contrary, Archer made a mock smile of infuriating false pity to the pirate woman:

\- It's not nice to be jealous like that, Rider.

Francis Drake blubbered with rage and straightened up... as an exaggerated cough drew attention to the speaker. Shozo Chihaya seemed to have absolutely no fun in the behavior of the two Servants. Gunzo's father was a tall man, bearded and disfigured by a large scar. He was wearing a raincoat and dark glasses that didn't really make him look friendly. He was followed everywhere by an adorable little girl in Victorian dress. It was the _Musashi_ battleship's Mental Model. They formed an amazing contrast, one with the other. Yet their duo was at the head of the Scarlet Fleet bringing together all the units engaged in the defense of the British Isles.

\- I am resuming the battle plan for those who would not listen. Our fleet will be divided into three wings. The ships modified by Kishinami-san will form the front line of the central wing. The aircraft carriers will be assembled at the rear. We will launch the fighters as soon as the _Regina Marina_ is within range, to strike beyond the horizon while the enemy cannot strike. With the modified missiles, we should be able to do some damage to them. Logically, the enemy will want to neutralize the central wing as soon as possible.

The holographic representation of the fleets, projected by Musashi, showed the black fleet on an intercept heading with main force.

\- Improved ships will have to withstand attack while the other two fleets will converge to surround and annihilate the enemy.

* * *

The battle plan had nothing to complicate, but it was based on a simple idea... which Altera allowed to be surrounded. This made Hakuno uncomfortable. She felt confused that the King of the Huns was the kind to do something totally unpredictable. However, most of the people present human marine officers, Mentals Models approved. Kishinami crossed Gunzo Chihaya's eyes and read the same doubts.

* * *

In fact, the leader of the Blue Steel Force also doubted his father's planned tactics. In order for the other two fleets not to be involved in the fight, they had to be away... and if Altera attacked one of the secondary forces? Without the warships turned into... "Mystic Code", the others had no chance. And his father brought them all together in the central force.

He hesitated... but it was his father and working with him was perhaps the only chance he had to build a bridge over the years of his disappearance and find him. Gunzo remained silent, not expressing his doubts.

His eyes derided and met those of Hakuno Kishinami. She too seemed to doubt. Heart torn, he turned away. Choosing to put aside what his fighting instinct -which had saved him in many battles - sought to blow him away.

* * *

Shy and having trouble speaking in public, Hakuno also swallowed her criticism. Shozo Chihaya was an admiral respected by humans as by the Fog, he was the only leader capable of uniting the two groups. He certainly didn't need some... kid to come and talk to him about solutions. However... the Victor of the Moon Cell focused on the Regalia. She remembered seeing a very useful function... almost miraculous. Kishinami concentrated. A screen appeared above her hand, confirming that her instructions had been followed.

Like the Petit Poucet in the fable, she had just placed a small pebble so as not to get lost. A small quantum pebble.

* * *

The sky was the seat of a power deployment capable of shaking all reasonable minds. A war chariot pulled by oxen was passing through the squadrons of the Fog Airship. Amidst the thundering laughter of Iskandar, the lightning generated by _Gordeus wheels_ struck one fighter after another. The fighters and bombers did not have enough artificial intelligence to counter the daring maneuvers of the King of Macedonia. Stripped of Klein's field, they exploded as soon as hit by lightning discharges. One device after the other went down in flames... it was a one-way carnage!

* * *

It is said that the first death of each battle is the plan of one of the participants.

Shozo Chihaya had developed his strategy based on the undeniable air superiority of his fleet. He had seven aircraft carriers and the Italian fleet had none. Harassed by hunters and torpedo bombers, Altera would have no choice but to engage in a confrontation against its main fleet to stop the carnage... and to be surrounded. Except that... to see Iskandar shaking the reins of his terrible hitch, it was visible that the aerial advantage was absolutely not on the side of the Fog!

Shozo Chihaya had immediately understood that the division of his fleets now made them extremely vulnerable. Under his command, the three squadrons converged... too late. Altera had not hesitated for a moment and its ships were heading for the assault of one of the forces which did not include any ship improved by Hakuno.

Caught up by Velber's Black Fleet, which was also faster, the Fog's Mentals Models had no choice but to veer off to fight.

Energy beam, plasma projectiles, shells, missiles and Corrosion Torpedoes exchanged. Explosions and mini black holes were born around the energy spheres of Klein's Field. However, the advantage of Altera was obvious...

The ships of the Fog had only a few missiles and torpedoes transformed into Mythic Code and thus capable of affecting the _Regina Marina_.

A few minutes of engagement were enough to determine the winner. Burning wrecks ravaged by explosions drifted to the surface of the ocean. While others sank, cut in half by Corrosion Torpedoes. Most of them belonged to the Fog's fleet, only a few happy blows had been made against Velber's ships.

This respite, however, had enabled the last two Fog fleets to assemble and head for the black armada.  
Altera had easily won the first two rounds of the battle and now had a crushing advantage to complete her victory.

* * *

The clash of armadas filled the sky with explosion. Everywhere, ships maneuvered. The turrets were tracking enemy ships and energy beams were crossing in the middle of missile fire. Yet these huge ships were not the key to victory.

In the midst of cruisers and destroyers, ancient biremes loaded with Macedonian hoplites advanced. They climbed up to the collision, opposing the pale grey effigies forming the army of the Moon Cell. Among them, the Aggressors dominated the fight by their size and power.

A rain of silver arrows caused desolation on the deck of a galley. On the command tower of a battleship of the Fog, the shooter stood up, looking for a new target. A red flame appeared in his palm, forming a strange sword whose blade looked like a corkscrew.

Archer encoded the sword on his bow. It thinned and lengthened while prodigious luminous effects spoke volumes about the power that accumulated in the strange projectile. Then he released his fingers:  
\- **Caladbolg**!

The **Fake Spiral Sword** crossed the battlefield transformed into a meteorite that fell on an Italian cruiser. Twisting distortion in space it breaks is Klein's Field foe and... the powerful explosion, like a small tactical nuclear devise, pulverized the ship.

For her part, Drake looked like a wildfire, bouncing here, running there, and sliding sideways. In each hand, she held a black powder gun, constantly shooting. The bullets struck one effigy at a time, and as others came, gunports appeared in the air behind her. Out of them came the culverins which bombed large enemy formations and made sink several Macedonian galleys.

The presence of the two Heroic Spirits was the only reason that the Hakuno Kishinami camp had not yet lost. Unfortunately, they were not the only Servants present...

* * *

Archer began to run, avoiding a real rain of lightning falling from the sky around him. Turning his eyes to the sky, he saw Iskandar's flying chariot return to him. His mouth twisted:  
\- Again, this is not my lucky day... well, it's never my lucky day.

After all, its characteristics left no doubt on the subject; Luck: E Rank.

* * *

Drake was caught in a huge confrontation between "Attack-Type programs" at the service of the two super-computers. Thanks to her presence, the fight evolved in favor of her Master's camp. However, a scream of utterly demented rage generated a chill in the neck. Francis Drake turned around just in time to avoid some kind of cyclone. A war mace in each hand, Darius III seemed to dance, smashing one defender after another and projecting them away. He stopped for a brief moment and screamed a second time... which generated an explosion of green flames all around him, burning dozens of effigies...  
Drake giggles nervously:

\- I know that my sex appeal is worthy of my reputation, but you should know that a woman does not like her suitors to be too sticky.

* * *

Sitting in the command chair of the _Surcouf_, Hakuno Kishinami was reduced to nervously gnawing her nails. The battle evolved in favor of the enemy. On the screens, scenes of chaos and carnage followed one another. She looked at a window that showed Archer. He had just notched a strange black arrow:

\- **Hrunting**!

Beowulf's sword, transformed into a projectile, soared to the sky like a magical bullet of red energy. At mach 10, it tracks the chariot of Iskandar. Archer did not just shoot an arrow... As soon as the first shot was fired, he loaded another identical one, and then another.

Above the ocean, the King of the Conqueror, did acrobatics in the hope of sowing the projectiles. Nevertheless, it ends up being caught up. Hakuno greeted the explosion with a pale smile. Archer was incredible. Whatever the enemy, he always found a way to adapt. Its versatility was incredible. Its _Reality Marble_ included an incredible number of swords with varied powers. His ability to alter them into arrows gave him access to an infinite number of projectiles.

Her joy was replaced by restlessness as Hakuno turned to Drake. The poor pirate was distressed.  
For any ordinary individual, the fight between her and Berserker would have resembled only a whirlwind of colors. For the Victor of the Grail War, the movements were fluid. She saw the blows, the dodges, the parades... Francis Drake was dominated and retreating. She already had several injuries.  
From her collection of _Cast Code_, Hakuno selected care ability and then focused on telepathic communication: "_Rider, get past the next two attacks, they're feigned... then strike while Darius gathers his forces for his real attack_." " _Okay, Master_."

Hakuno Kishinami watched the clash. Her tactics proved to be valid... as always and Berserker found himself catapulted against a cruiser's chimney which he broke.

From the corner of the eye, the Sovereign of the Moon Cell saw a movement on another screen. Iskandar had just reappeared! Falling from the sky, he landed on the deck of the ship where Archer was standing, bursting with a thundering laugh:

\- There are not many who can boast of having impressed me. Tell me, what is your name?

\- I'm Archer, I don't need another name.

\- Strange, we are not in a Grail War, calling ourselves by our class names makes little sense.  
The warrior dressed in red simply shrugged his shoulders and summoned his favorite pair of Chinese falchions:  
\- If you want to know me, O Iskandar, King of the Conquerors, my blades speak better than I do.

The red colossus laughed again:

\- First, listen to my proposal. Will you...

\- No.

\- How do you know what I was going to say?

Archer had a sarcastic smile:

\- You make the very same proposal to all the heroes you meet. The words "pride" and "honor" could have no meaning for you? I place my loyalty to my Master above everything... including the Moon Cell.

Hakuno felt blushing to the root of her hair as her heart struck against his ribs. As Iskandar threw himself forward, throwing an electric shock in the direction of Archer, the latter retaliated by throwing Kanshou... then Bakuya. The King of the Conquerors dodged the first, by the second before discovering that Archer was sending Bakuya back to him while Kanshu - magnetized - was returning. The colossus dodge and parrying, managed to avoid being cut into small pieces. But Archer's only reaction was a cold smile:

\- **Trace One**!

A new pair of Chinese swords materialized in his hands and he sent them to Iskandar, creating a figure formed by four swirling blades that he called **Double Crane Wings**. The king of Macedonia wavered. He turned his gaze to his adversary... who had just disappeared! His warrior instinct allowed him to realize that Archer had jumped, catching a pair of swords in the air and falling back on him. The blades described a bloody x and Iskandar was thrown back. It took more than that to kill the great conqueror... but he was seriously wounded.

Nevertheless, Archer could not take momentum of this edge. Only his reflexes prevented him from being frozen. He dodged the ice jet and then desperately parrying several strokes of a sword which left rainbows in its path.

Hakuno left her chair with a small cry, joining hands in a gesture of anguish. She opened her mouth... but clenched her lips... she could give no instructions to her Servant. He didn't have time to think... just to fend off the avalanche of blows.

The Master took a look at the other screen and realized that his other Servant was not doing any better. Again, Drake retreated by appearing the attacks of Darius III. And on the other screens, the battle turned to catastrophe... Without its Servants, the Fog could not repel the Lesser Heroes of Iskandars and the improved ships of the Black Fleet.

A cry of pain brought her back to Archer... the knight dressed in red had just fallen to his knees, surrounded by electric arcs. The King of the Conquerors stood behind him with his sword raised, bursting with electric shocks!

\- No!

Hakuno's mind reacted with it usual vivacity, developing tactics, seeking possibilities of victory, flaws... but only to give up an idea after another. Nothing could stop the inevitable. Command marks, Codes Casts, nothing the Inheritor of the Moon could use would only push back the deadline. In retrospect, her mistakes were obvious.

First, it was impossible to face three Top Servants like Altera, Iskandar and Darius III with only Archer and Drake. Moreover, the initial tactic had proved to be wrong. Engaging in combat in such conditions could only lead to defeat.

* * *

Fortunately, Hakuno Kishinami had even foreseen his defeat. The teenager raised her hand, looking at the Regalia who were glistening at her finger:

\- _Quantuum Jump_!

* * *

**Author note: I leave you with an unsurpassed suspense *sadistic laugh* : that have prepared Hakuno and Waver?**


	14. Chapter 14 Wild Hunt

**First of all, I would like to wish all my readers a happy New Year. May your health and dreams flourish.**

**Sawtooth44: I'm sorry, what are you talking about?**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, Waver and Iskandar have no Knowledge of Hakuno. And yes Hakuno is... very very shy. Above all, her stay in the Moon Cell made her very aware that her decisions could lead to the death of others and she is more than happy to leave this kind of responsibility to others. Shinji, Alice, Rani... she already has a lot of ghosts with her. Archer is very fond of his little Master... after a difficult start. ****I believe that the gift (not blessed by the gods) of always finding oneself in the wrong place at the wrong time or finding oneself making difficult choices is not for nothing. They find things in each other's lives in common with theirs. They can understand each other. We could say that they speak the same language.**

**Boyzilla: It's not the "classical" Namless of Extraverse it's the Archer of my last game party. I focused on increasing his attack and defense capabilities... and I neglected his luck which even in the end was still E-rank. For the conter-attack and the Hakuno victorious come-back... it's Hakuno. Isn't it obvious ?**

* * *

**Wild Hunt**

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

It was an ordinary pendulum as seen everywhere, with three hands. Fixed to the wall, it indicated the passing time. Each second followed precisely, mechanically, the previous one by the play of the cogs.

It was on the wall next to the blackboard. The pastel painted wall classroom of the Tsukimihara Academy remained similar to what it had always been... a reconstruction of a real classroom in the digitized world of Seraph. The tables lined up peacefully in front of the professor's desk, the windows facing the courtyard below.

Yet only one student was there.

Hakuno Kishinami, in her brown uniform with a blue ribbon, looked at the teacher. At times, she frowned. Her mind hardly emerged from the mist. She did not remember what she was doing before this class and she was uncomfortable with a sense of urgency. The girl was sure she had something important to do and...

\- Kishinami-san, I am trying to explain something important.

The little squirrel blushed and turned to the blackboard. Professor Archimedes had not raised his voice, but she shivered because his eyes were soulless windows open to a mind of cogs and calculations. It was a man, a Mediterranean-type European with brown hair that was not disciplined and formed a crown of peaks all around his head. He was wearing a sort of long black and purple overcoat on the outside, yellow on the inside, widely revealing the top of his chest. A scarf was used as a belt and a chain with wide links beat his thigh. His hands were gloved.

\- I was saying, there is only one universe, but it is made up of several "harmonics".  
Chalk in hand, Archimedes drew a tree pattern on the blackboard. From a common trunk began several branches which in turn divided into secondary branches.

\- A harmonic is a parallel reality. The destiny of each man multiplies the points - like the switches of a railway network- where he is given the opportunity to make choices that will change not only his life, but even the course of history. However, a man is only aware of living in one of these realities... On the contrary, the Moon Cell travels through them all. When it reaches one of these switches, he leaves a kind of beacon that will allow it to find that position during a...

Hakuno suddenly cut him conscious of already knowing this Moon Cell ability:

\- A _Quantum Jump_!

Archimedes nodded his head.

\- Exactly, a _Quantum Jump_. The ability of the Moon Cell to move from one harmonic to another is called _Quantum Time Lock_; it is in fact the most important function of the Moon Cell. Without this function, the Moon Cell would be reduced to being able to travel only one harmonic in the history of the Earth. On the contrary, the _Quantum Time Lock_ opens the possibility of knowing the infinite variants of the history of this planet.

As Hakuno listened to Archimedes, a kind of tearing occurs in her mind... With her head in her hands, she remembered the Fog, Velber, Altera, her defeat... What was she doing here?  
When she looked up to talk to Archimedes... the classroom had disappeared... she found herself immersed in a meaningless spectacle. A spiral of energy surrounded her, made of wires that were born and disappeared forming a kind of tangled web whose connections were constantly changing. She seemed suspended in the middle of nothingness and no longer felt her body... Rather than panic, Hakuno was fascinated. The I.A. looked around her and came to understand that it was a representation of the harmonics Archimedes was talking about. By focusing on one of them, the Sovereign of the Moon Cell saw the appearance of scenes from the life of a male Hakuno Kishinami who had a female fox as principal Servant. Each ephemeral wire contained variants... infinities of variants... a female Hakuno in a fantastic medieval world... another with a radioactive giant lizard like Servant... another where a male Hakuno Kishinami had remained in the Seraph... a world where Hakuno had died while facing Lu Bu, the Servant of Rani VIII... others... so many others... too much for a human mind.

Hakuno Kishinami was at the center of it all!

No, she realized, not her.

Hakuno turned around, feeling connections she had not yet been really aware of becoming crystal clear.  
She was in the Photonic Abyss of the Moon Cell. She _always_ was in the Photonic Abyss. She never quit it.

The Main Core was a huge unfinished crystal cube, showing a sphere of golden light floating above a surface covered in water, from which emerged numerous stone pillars like some sort of funeral monuments.  
Hakuno Kishinami was not at the center of the spiral formed by the harmonics, it was the Moon Cell. Since Rin Tohsaka had explained to her that she was an A.I. Hakuno had gone through various stages: refusal, depression, resigned acceptance... However, she never really thought about what that really meant.

Hakuno Kishinami was a program that ran on the supercomputer called "Moon Cell"  
She was an integral part of the Moon Cell.

The others "Hakuno Kishinami" (which did not all call themselves so) was variants of herself in other harmonics. But all of them were Moon Cell programs.

Wonder "why" is to ask the question to the Moon Cell. Its answer stunned Hakuno.  
The creators of the Moon Cell had tried to design a computer capable of recording the entire history of the Earth in its infinite variations. However, they had encountered impossibility. The more they made their computer smart, the more data it absorbed, which required more intelligence to make decisions. As a result, the necessary computing power tended towards infinity.

The multiple iterations of the Holy Grail War had no other purpose than to... Hakuno shivered by "listening" to the Moon Cell ... Twice H. Pieceman had not come very far from understanding everything! In fact, as Twice had guessed, it was a Darwinian selection, a sieve to distinguish intelligence capable of making a decision.

Rather than give an infinite intelligence to the Moon Cell (which was anyway impossible) the creators of the supercomputer had decided to split the decision-making between units created according to the events encountered in each harmonic: A.I. like Twice, she or... Sakura Matou.

As this flood of knowledge poured into her, the victor of the Grail War shook. It was not the most important, for the moment. Kishinami finally remembered what she was doing there.  
She had just used the _Quantum Time Lock_ to return before the battle opposing her to Altera. This journey of her soul and spirit into the circumvolutions of the Moon Cell had enabled her to understand the real relationship between the Sovereign and the Divine Automatic Recording Devise. However, this revelation did not change anything to her goal; she had to go back in time thanks to a _Quantum Jump_ to arrive at a variant of history where she triumphed over Veber.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami's soul and spirit had performed the _Quantum Jump_ as a Moon Cell program. Once the operation was completed, she was downloaded once again into the Delta-Core of the Mental Model of _Surcouf_... just at the end of the conference the day before the battle against Altera.  
For the Moon Cell, it was practically a standard maintenance operation, as an update of a program after downloading a newer version. The soul of both versions of Hakuno was identical and the spirit of the "recent version" contained just new information.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami's "restart" lasted a few seconds. For all the conference participants, the Japanese teenager in school uniform had simply immobilized, hand outstretched, staring at a virtual screen that had appeared at the-above her ring then... she clapped her eyelashes before looking at them all with a stupefied gaze:

\- The fleet must not be divided.

Shozo Chihaya showed no reaction, apart from a glance towards the holographic projection of Musashi, showing the disposition of his ships.

\- Why?

\- I have just returned from the future.

Hakuno raised her hand and dozens of virtual screens appeared along the walls of the room. Each one showed a film of the battle, a plan, and diagrams of fleets on the move. We saw Iskandar destroying the fighters leading the first strike mounted on _Gordeus's Wheel_ or the attack of the Black Fleet of Velber as one of the three armadas separated by the tactical decision of Shozo Chihaya.

His son, Gunzo, went from screen to screen and nodded at the moment:

\- I sensed something like that.

Then the Blue Steel Force Leader turned to Hakuno:

\- How can you know the future?

The girl hesitated and replied:

\- To me, that's the past. That's what happened. I just went back.

Hyuga looked at Hakuno with a dreamy air:

\- I had heard that the Moon Cell had lived the whole history of the Earth several times. Is that how it is? He goes back in time to explore the variations of history?

Hakuno simply nodded:

\- It's called _Quantum Time Lock_.

Shozo Chihaya had looked at several windows focusing mainly on the re-enactments of the battle, showing the movements of the wings. He was an excellent naval tactician; his plan was classic but brilliant, logically exploiting their advantages to achieve success... He simply ignored the abilities of the Heroic Spirits. For against the enemy Servants, it required the experience of someone who had faced them. He turned to Hakuno:

\- Kishinami-san, how to beat them?

The Sovereign of the Moon Cell unwittingly showed a determined face:

\- First of all, I must invoke an additional Servant.

Behind her, Drake left the chair where she had collapsed:

\- Master, give me command of the fleet. My _Voyager of the Storm_ skill is equivalent to the _Military Tactic_ skill in a naval confrontation, and I have it at A+. Altera and Iskandar are just amateurs next to me. Ah... and you will certainly need my Noble Phantasm... so don't forget that his power depends on my fortune. And you haven't paid me much, so far... how about a small extension... gold, girlie, a lot of gold... in the interest of the outcome, of course.

Hakuno nodded and sighed. Of course, Drake did not seek to enrich herself... How could an idea like that get through her head?  
Without worrying about this part of the dialogue that escaped him, Shozo Chihaya turned to Rider:  
\- Do you have a plan?  
It took Francis Drake a good half hour to convince the other leaders of the alliance that her idea was capable of defeating Velber.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami was in the English countryside, only escorted by Archer. The night had fallen and only the full moon lit the grass waving towards the hills in the distance. She had chosen a deserted place that she felt full of the memory of the world.

She held out her hand where the Regalia ring shone.

A magic circle encircling a six-pointed star appeared. Hakuno didn't need to utter an incantation, just focus on what she really wanted. After all, the Holy Grail gave form and substance to the heroes and she was the Sovereign of the Moon Cell... the most powerful of the Grails.

She closed her eyes.

_She needed a great hero._

The color of the circle changed from blue to orange

_A hero eager to defend the British Isles against an invasion._

A light was emitted towards the sky by the circle which passed through various colors, red, green, then again blue. There was a trembling and the grass; the trees were covered with golden light. Particles, like golden fireflies, rose up.

_A hero wielding a weapon powerful enough to defeat the Mars sword of Altera, valiant enough to challenge the Scourge of God, and strong enough to fight even against the King of the Huns.  
_Archer opened round eyes. Never before had he seen such an impressive reaction at a magical ceremony. Worried, he prepared to _trace_ Kanshou and Bakuya while keeping his eyes on the circle. The air, the ground seemed to resonate as if the country itself responded to the invocation. A golden light merged forming a humanoid silhouette that became denser.

Brutally drained of her energy, Hakuno fell on a knee gasping before raising her eyes, feeling a formidable presence a few steps before her.

Bathed in lunar light, a figure stood in the middle of the circle. A crown inlaid with precious stones glittered at his forehead and a blue clak woven with gold threads, lined with white fur, draped her shoulders. Her hands were crossed on the knob of a sword whose guard and golden handle were inlaid with blue enamel.

From all her being emanated a regal air.

The rising voice evoked the sliding of a steel blade into a velvet sheath:

\- Servant Saber, I answer your summons. I ask you: Are thou my Master?

Stunned by the woman facing her, wearing a silver breastplate inlaid with blue enamel, gauntlets and a skirt of metal blades on a blue and white dress, Hakuno forgot to breathe.  
It was Archer who replied:

\- Artoria?

He had never forgotten this beautiful stoic face, her eyes like emeralds and her golden hair tied in a mat in the back of his head... as in his memory.

\- A Servant?

The eyes of Artoria Pendragon creased dangerously as she pointed Excalibur towards the one who could only be an opponent.

But Hakuno had jumped on his feet and stepped in:

\- No, I am your Master, Saber, and Archer is also one of my Servants.

Completely in shock the Heroic Spirit who once... so long ago... called Emiya Shirou was always looking at the legendary King of Brittany. She was the Servant he invoked during the Fuyuki Holy Grail War... but at the same time she was not her. The energy that emanated from her was incredible. This Saber had to be three or four times more powerful than the other!

\- Yes... Saber was invoked on the British Isles to protect them! The origin of King Arthur's power is her dragon core... linked to Maglocunnus.

Hakuno turned to Archer, who soliloquized as if in shock:

\- Maglocunnus?

\- Master, have you ever seen the Wales flag? It's a red dragon on a green background. This dragon is an earth dragon representing the _leys lines_ that travel the British Isles. The birth of King Arthur was prophesied by Merlin after he saw a red dragon (Maglocunnus) fighting a white dragon representing the Saxon invaders. You managed to summon Artoria Pendragon in her incarnation as _Rex Que Futuram_.

The Inheritor of the Moon was completely lost and Archer found out:

\- The legend of King Arthur is in two parts. There is the first part that everyone knows: _Rex Quodam_, The King Who Reigned. The sword in stone, the Round Table and its defeat in Camlann... this is all part of this legend. But the second part of his legend says that "The King Will Reign" (_Rex Que Futuram_). When the British Isles face an invasion they cannot face, King Arthur will return. You just fulfilled that prophecy!

Artoria watched Archer and Kishinami with interest, listening to their discussion. She then lowered her sword and knelt down:

\- Master, my sword is yours. I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity. For centuries without number, I have been crying on the red hill of Camlann, amidst the remains of my friends, waiting for the day when I will finally be offered a chance to redeem my failure.

Archer nodded and then a strange expression passed on his face:

\- Master, I just remembered that there is another Hero who is supposed to come back to life on the day when England will again be invaded...

Hakuno tilted her head with an interrogative expression. A vision so cute that Artoria had her first real smile:

\- Are you talking about Sir Francis Drake?

Archer laughs stupidly, shaking his head with amusement:

\- Believe it or not, King Arthur but... Hakuno also invoked Drake.

After looking at the Servant and the Master with disbelief, Artoria put a gloved hand of iron in front of her mouth to hide her laugh:

\- Arrogance is the knight's first enemy. However... I think I can say that our enemies have already lost. It's just that they still have to find out.

* * *

At the first light of dawn, the coalition fleet faced the Black Ships of Velber. The Allies applied the order of battle devised by Rider, advancing in line and blocking the Irish Sea. With supply ships in the order of battle, Drake seemed to have opted for a wait-and-see strategy and attrition conflict, a cautious tactic that swears with the pirate's habits. After all, Francis Drake was famous for the commando operation that allowed her to take Cartagena and the harassment of the Spanish.

But isn't the art of war all about lying?

Of course, Drake didn't want to prolong the confrontation. She just wanted Altera to believe in that tactic so she could look for a quick outcome.

Her deployment in line also allowed Drake to make the best use of her numerical superiority. It forced the King of the Huns to choose between two alternatives. Either Altera was deploying her fleet on such a broad front... with fewer guns to cover an identical front, or she was concentrating on a restricted perimeter and thus letting her opponent free to turn it on a flank and can be even to surround it.

Drake's last advantage was her Master. Hakuno had questioned the Moon Cell to learn about the history of the Servants she faced, a habit she had taken during the Grail War. The Inheritor of the Moon then told her Servant what she had learned. For example, Altera had been beaten by Roman general Flavius Aetius at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

The Roman general had countered the Huns' usual harassment tactics by being as mobile as they were. If Altera decided to resort to this strategy, her ignorance of the war on sea would hand her over to a pirate master of naval guerrilla warfare.

As for Iskandar, he was much more dangerous. First, the King of the Conqueror had a reputation as a land war genius, having repeatedly defeated armies perhaps ten times in number. His style was known, eagerly commented since antiquity. He loved the lightning cavalry maneuvers that he drove himself. He carried the attack on a flank, before falling back on the enemy center and aiming at the enemy command. In addition, Admiral Nearchus of Leto was one of his subordinates.

The drones launched by the English did not survive long despite their anti-radar capabilities, but each loss was replaced by another aircraft. In practice, the cover of the Black Fleet was never broken, allowing Drake to inspect in real time the enemy who was maneuvering.

Drake agreed to that.

Iskandar was in charge.

The enemy fleet had adopted a formation that resembled the naval counterpart of the Battle of Issos. Velber's forces formed a thinner battle wall than that of the Coalized, but the Italian fleet's fast cruisers were all assembled on the right wing. The side where the king of Macedonia would attack... as usual.

\- Master, tell Archer to move to the left wing with the mobile reserve.

In her command chair, Hakuno nodded, focusing on her telepathic connection with the Servant of the bow.

The confrontation began in a very classical way, the fast cruisers of the _Regina Marina_ focused their fire on the first ships of the left wing. The Allies retaliated and soon the sky was invaded by missiles, shells, lasers and plasma projectiles, while allied submarines crept in the wake of the Black Ships to attack them with Corrosion Torpedoes.

Ships from both camps, Klein's Field which had been destroyed, were soon drifting into the boiling cauldron that had become the Irish Sea.

Allied casualties were greater. However, their numerical superiority outweighed it.

From close to close, fight now ignited the entire battle line. Slowly, the Allies took advantage.  
It was at this time that Iskandar invoked the fleet of Nearchus of Leto, to strengthen its right wing. The biremes carrying on their sails the sun of Macedonia reversed the course of the battle. The soldiers of the **Ionian Hetairoi**, taking the coalition ships to board, were tearing apart the effigies and aggressors that were defending them.

Allied casualties soared and only weapons upgraded by Hakuno could destroy Minor Heroes like Iskandar's warriors.

Nevertheless, Velber's forces were not the only ones able to resort to Noble Phantasms.  
Rider had gone up on the _Surcouf_ kiosk and called, looking up at the sky:

-Remember my name by the death from my passing! Temeroso el Draque! I am the woman who set the sun! You rascals, it's time! The King of Storms, a swarm of ghosts, this is the beginning of the Wild Hunt!  
Suddenly, the weather changed radically, the wind turned to storm and the sky rolled with black clouds covered with lightning which struck the waves. A storm of the end of the world preceded the materialization of the Golden Hint. The flagship of Francis Drake, red wooden hull and white sails, appeared in the sky, as carried by the infernal storm where the cries of demons resounded accompanied by the moans of the damned.

Rider jumped to the prow while about twenty ghost ships surrounded the Golden Hint. She unloaded her black powder guns at the same time as the culverin from her fleet were firing.

Caught in a veritable flood of destructive rays, Macedonian biremes and Black Ships were burning, melting or exploding. The titanic waves and lightning falling from the sky finished dismantling them.  
Although the battle is not over, the miracle of the "Night Storm" had just recurred. As in the past, Drake had succeeded in defeating the Invincible Armada, which threatened England.


	15. Chapter 15 The Revanch of the Aloads

**Boyzilla: Yes, there are references to other series where Hakuno appears. And yes, the last part of the conflict happens.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: No, this Artoria is an Alter. It is distinct from the Artoria of F/SN (which is the "Rex Quodam" the King Who Reigned). This Artoria is the "Rex que Futuram", the King Who Will Reign. She doesn't remember Archer (or Iskandar) because it's not her they met.  
Artoria recognizes Hakuno as the Sovereign of the Moon Cell... The feudal era and (therefore Camelot) recognizes a hierarchy between kings and... the Moon Cell is a power that surpasses even the gods. Even King Arthur is nothing compared to the ruler of this power.  
Leo does not have Gawain, the world of Arpegio of Blue Steel does not know magic. It is a world parallel to that of Fate/Extra. The Leo of Arpegio of Blue Steel is a character with the same name, the same appearance, but a different story. He never met Hakuno in Seraph, for example.**

* * *

**The Revanche of the Aloads**

* * *

The battle was lost for the Umbral Star camp. But if military victory proved impossible, there remained a simple way for Altera to win the war. The entire enemy's strength was based on the abilities and decisions of a single Master. Capturing Hakuno Kishinami would be enough to reverse the situation.

Obviously, it was a much easier thing to say than to do.

* * *

Two cruisers clashed at short range while "Attack-Type Programms" with a black armor jumped on the deck of the Fog's ship to face their fellow Moon Cell servicemen. The clash remained undecided, the Effigy armed with bows, spears, maces and spears fell in equal numbers on both sides. But the destroyed soldiers were almost instantly replaced by the Aggressors who remained out of the fray.  
The fight threatened to last, a battle between two supercomputers capable of distorting reality and invoking armies of combat programs.

But they weren't the only ones caught in the fury of this titanic confrontation. Rider jumps on deck, rushing from a slide between the fighters. In her hands, her pistols slammed one opponent at a time. Bright as a blaze of fire, Drake dodged the attacks, leaping there, spinning here without ceasing to mock and laugh at the efforts of the enemies to stop her.

Another Servant then appeared in the melee, running so fast that she could not be followed with the naked eyes. She left behind a hazy silhouette. However, the "Attack-Type Programms" that took a few steps after she touched them stopped and collapsed... cleanly cut in half!  
King Artoria Pendragon wields her invisible sword towards the enemy Aggressors, her beautiful face frozen by concentration. She pushed the blade forward and a golden bolt appeared amidst the whirlwind:

\- **Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind King!**

It was as if an air tube materialized on the deck of the Black Ship. The Aggressors and the Effigy tore themselves from the ground, spinning violently before being rejected against the command tower. Most of the lower soldiers - rather fragile - immediately dissipated into purple particles. However, although damaged, the Aggressors began to rise... except that they were destroyed by a barrage of culverin cannonballs.

As the last defenders dispersed, Artoria turned to Rider, surrounded by open gunports in the air:

\- Sir Francis, your assistance has been very helpful.

Drake grinned and said:

\- Oh... you can drop the "Sir Drake" I'm not one of those great knights in polished armor in love with their big horses... the only polished metal I like is shinning gold coins.

Not a muscle moved in Artoria's face when she bowed seriously:

\- I see... If you will excuse me, the battle is calling for me elsewhere.

Before King Artoria could leave the deck of the reconquered _Regina Marina_'s ship, a virtual screen materialized in the air, showing the bust of Hakuno Kishinami. Their Master gave them a shy smile:

\- Saber, Rider, excellent cooperation.

\- That's normal, Master.

\- You pay well, girlie; my pirate honor wants me to do a good job.

Kishinami nodded:

\- Rider, continues to clean ships in this area.

\- Tailor-made work for a pirate, girlie.

\- Saber?

\- Yes, Master?

The image of Hakuno was replaced by a plan of battle. In almost all sectors, the fight turned in favor of the allied forces. There was a flashing point on a large cruiser in the Black Fleet of Velber.

\- Archer has spotted Darius III on this ship. He has engaged but is dominated. You have to help him.  
\- At your command, Master.

Artoria jumped overboard and ran to the surface of the waves. The blessing of the Lady of the Lake meant that no body of water could stand in her way.

* * *

Hakuno sighed and turned back into the command chair of the MN _Surcouf_. Part of her tension was released in a sigh. Her eyes went through the different screens. At a speed strictly impossible for a human being, the A.I. of the Moon Cell became the Mental Model of the _Surcouf_ assimilated the different schemas, the graphs of allied losses, the estimates of enemy losses, as well as images of the drones that continued to roam the battlefield.

The Inheritor of the Moon agreed with resolve. Her side won thanks to the plan that she and Rider had pushed the Allies to adopt.

Kishinami turned to one of the plans that showed the development of confrontation in a local sector. With one thought, she made appear several tags on the map:  
\- _Première Division de Croiseurs_, Richelieu head to 066 to W.P. One and follow the route I have plotted. You bypass an enemy group to take it back.

The excited voice of Richelieu 3 replied:

\- Well, little squirrel, after the battle I will have to hug you to thank you for being so adorable and also...  
There was a confused noise and then an almost identical voice - but clearly more calm- resumed the word:  
\- Received Kishinami, Richelieu 1, over.

The victor of the Grail War blinked several times, wondering once again why people seemed so... strange when they were near her. Hakuno ends up shaking her head. This question could wait until the end of the battle. His attention focused on the clash between Archer and Darius III.

* * *

Why... why once again, did he face a monster of berserker?!

Part of Archer's soul was screaming in a mixture of fear and frustration. Yet, while he was barely dodging a mace blazing with green flames, his ironic smile only intensified. Yet he left a large part of his famous scarlet mantle to be charred in the operation. As he received himself on the ground the black monster swiveled on him to release a kick that propelled Archer ten meters further. Despite the protection of his Kevlar-like armor and his fully reinforced body, Nameless felt his ribs crack.  
On his knees, he spat blood...

Images rushed into his head... Illya and Heracles in the forest of the Einsbern castle... The Seraph arena, Rani VIII and Lü Bu Fèngxian...

As Berserker, we usually invoked Servants who were too weak to fight even with legendary heroes like Achilles or King Arthur. They were mortals who had come to the rank of hero by performing uncompromisingly feats like nurse Florence Nightingale or serial killers like Jack the Ripper (1).  
But a mocking fate (or Archer customary misfortune) wanted him always to fall upon great warriors who could be invoked like Berserker. With the agility and reflexes of a lifetime spent in combat, combined with the monstrous strength and endurance of their class, they were almost invincible opponents.  
Besides, this Berserker had an army...

Wiping the blood on his lips with his sleeve, Archer dodged the attack of two skeletons carrying large rectangular shields and spears. In motion, he counterattacked. Kanshou and Bakuya sliced off the two monsters that dispersed into purple digital particles. Exept that, Darius III had already returned to him, swirling like a dervish waving torches in each hand.  
Archer jumps high, dodging the charge.

\- _I'm the bone of my sword._

While he was still between heaven and earth, his pair of Chinese sabres disappeared in favor of a large black bow. Before touching down, Archer found time to launch a veritable barrage of arrows at his foes. Of course, Darius got away without a scratch (but one could not expect anything else with such a monster). On the other hand the army of the _Immortals_ had not endured as well the attack... except that they were not called _Immortals_ for nothing. A series of circles of violet light appeared on the devastated deck of the cruiser of the _Regina Marina_. A moment later other another bunch of skeletons' soldiers materialized.

Archer's smirking smile intensified. The Wrought Iron Hero murmured the second verse of his incantation:

\- _Steel is my body and fire is my blood_.

Then, as a tide of opponents rushed at him, he made a wide gesture of the arm. And in space so swept swords materialized, pulverizing his enemies. Not mundane blades, but dozen of _Nobles Phantasms_.

Even Darius III seemed impressed. Straightened with all his stature, the black monster howled, bulging the torso and spreading his arms still armed with burning maces.

However, Nameless did not fight alone. He felt that his Master was trying to contact him. He opened his mind:

\- Archer, Saber is on his way to meet you.

The next moment, his wounds closed while a second cast code strengthened his protection.  
\- Master, lately your decisions have been remarkably strategic. You have become a fearsome warlord.  
The mental connection did not only communicate a telepathic voice, it also made it possible to exchange emotions in a rudimentary way. Archer smiles at the embarrassed shock caused by his compliment.  
\- You're not used to me being so direct. Yes, I know... What a nostalgic feeling... I haven't spoken that way in a long time. That must be the effect you have on me, Master.

Invincible, the army of the undead had once again gathered around the monstrous King of Kings. The assault was however blocked by a hurricane that carried the skeletons and broke them against the cruiser's command turret.

Artoria Pendragon had just arrived and she crashed next to Nameless who smiled at her in return:  
\- I have rarely been so happy to see you, Saber.

In spite of the _Immortals_ gathering once again, the young woman glanced at him.  
\- Think nothing of it, Knight. It is normal to come to the aid of a warrior who - alone- stands up to such an army. However... I am astonished. It's not the first time you speak as if we knew each other. Believe that if you had come to Camelot, I would have remembered it. You wield the sword with purity, without arrogance. A man of your worth and nobility would have deserved a seat at the Round Table.

Archer shook his head without ceasing to smile:

\- It's a long story. Let's say I met you... but I didn't meet you...

\- I see, an Alter?

Archer nodded his head. Then, turning his eyes away from Artoria and faced the army led by Darius III before enunciating the third verse of his incantation:

\- _I have created over a thousand blades_.

Then he materialized his favorite pair of swords before jumping into the fray, Artoria at his side. Striking the shots intended for their partner, counterattacking if the latter blocked, covering each other, the couple seemed in perfect osmosis. Instead of fighting, they seemed to dance together. The duo broke the ranks of the _Immortal_ army, breaking them and dispersing them as if they were just twigs caught in a hurricane.

* * *

Invaded by a confused feeling, Hakuno turned her eyes away from the screen that showed the fight of Artoria and Nameless. Only in existence for a few months, the A.I. with the appearance of a teenager girl was not very good at deciphering her feelings... not to mention those of others.  
She was just jealous.

But... didn't know what jealousy was.

Just that she no longer wanted to watch Archer fight and felt a strong irritation against her and the desire to be in Artoria's place.

More logical than emotional, she did not understand her reaction. However, it reminded her of the moment when Rin Tohsaka and Rani VIII had argued because they both had the idea to cook for her. Rin finally ran away crying...

Did she feel the same way?

That she became able to understand that she was now experiencing what Rin had felt was probably the best proof of Hakuno's emotional achievement.

Alas, a battle was not an ideal place to reflect on one's own emotions.

A violent shock shook the MN _Surcouf_. The lights wavered on board the submarine... Hakuno tended, conscious of being attacked.

* * *

Never before has a Master of any Grail War been so protected as Hakuno Kishinami. First, she was aboard a heavily armed submarine cruiser of the Fog. In addition, the aircraft carriers HMS _Unicorn_ and MN _Bearn_ were escorting her. Some of their aircraft were turning over the three ships to protect them from attack.

Only, struck by lightning, they exploded one after the other.

In the sky, a cart pulled by oxen was spinning among the fighter squadrons who were trying to intercept it.

The weapons forged by the Fog proved powerless against a Heroic Spirit.

Altera's scheme proved brilliant in its simplicity: to lure the Servants away from their Master by using Darius III as bait and then send Iskandar to seize the now vulnerable Regalia possessor.

Pulling on the reins of his war cart, the King of the Conqueror plunged on the MN _Surcouf_ shouting:

\- Light is at other end of the world- conquer! **Via Expugnatio**!

Calling aloud the name of his Noble Phantasm, the King of Macedonia released all the power of Zeus's chariot. Even reinforced by all the _prana_ that Hakuno could collect, the Klein's field of the submarine could not resist the charge of Gordius Wheel preceded by a real rain of lightning arcs.  
The energy shield broke.

A moment later, Iskandar dropped on the deck of the _Surcouf_, brandishing the Sword of the Cypriots. Effigy of the Moon Cell materialized and the King of the Conqueror rushed upon them to slash them with large reels.

Hakuno Kishinami was shaking like a leaf. Surrounded by a Klein's Field and an Effigy troop led by an Aggressor, she heard the crash of battle coming closer. Neither the "Attack-Type Programms" of the Moon Cell, nor the automatic defenses of the _Surcouf_ could do more than slow down Iskandar.

She swallowed and raised her hand where she saw a scarlet tattoo:

\- By my first Mark of Command, Saber comes to me!

The Command Mark, the Joker of every Master made possible the impossible. Space and time fluctuated as the Moon Cell responded to the desire of the victor of the Grail War.  
Artoria appeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Far from it, Archer had an ironic grimace when he saw the King of Knights disappear.

Obviously, everything was going too well to last.

On the other side, as crazy as Darius III was, the opportunity to triumph over his enemy had not escaped him. Turning his head back, the King of Kings made a tremendous roar. At once foul tentacles, with suction cups replaced by howling faces and loaded with skeletal arms, came out of the ground, while the Berserker found himself on the back of some sort of demonic war elephant at the head of the horde of dead which he commanded.

Archer is in a desperate situation?

That was a little routine for a Grail War veteran!

Nameless's ironic smile was accentuated, Artoria had allowed him to weaken the enemy and above all there remained only one verse to his song:

\- _So I pray_, **Unlimited Blade Work**!

There was a flash of light. Suddenly the sea and the warships in full confrontation were replaced by sand dunes stretching infinitely in all directions, a desert... strewn with swords, like gravestones, each marking the place of the fall of a great warrior. In the sky flooded with smoke and ash, as far away as moons, huge gears were turning slowly.

\- Welcome to my _Reality Marble_: Universe of the Endless Blade! One warrior... one sword cannot stand against an army of immortals!

Archer raised his arm and a shock shook his inner universe... the ground rose as if under the effect of an earthquake while a shadow advanced among the dunes to wrap the army of the _Immortals_.  
\- If one sword is not enough... take all my blades!

Archer lowered his arm.

In the sky, the shadow descended upon the living dead... swords by the hundreds... by the thousands... by the tens of thousands... a swarm of blades from all eras... from all lands... falling from the sky in a metallic crash.

* * *

Artoria ran on the waves, zigzagging between the burning ships, in the midst of the boiling water, swallowing the wrecks that were sinking in the dark depths of the ocean. But the King of the Knights did not pay attention to the fire that crossed in every direction, to the explosions and armies of the "Attack-Type Programms" who took the enemy ships at the collision.

She was only concerned about the teenager in school uniform in her arms. Hakuno turned her big eyes both fearful and confident towards the knight, and Artoria did not want to disappoint her.

Her instinct warned her... she jumped, dodging a flock of lightning.

In the sky, Gordius Wheel passed over them, accompanied by the thundering laughter of Iskandar:  
\- Always so handsome, King of the Knights. You would make a good recruit for my army, little girl. Still not decided to join me?!

\- King of the Conquerors, I repeat, I would never serve a looter. The king's way is the protection of his nation, not the freedom to trample upon peoples to steal them.

In spite of her great mastery of her emotions, Artoria began to find it difficult to contain herself. She did not know Iskandar... even if the latter thought otherwise. However, the Conqueror had a gift to make her angry. And Artoria Pendragon doubted that the Alter he met enjoyed being called "little girl" more than she did.

The _Rex que Futuram_ leapt forward accelerating abruptly, using Invisible Air to lower the atmospheric pressure and hence its resistance.

Of course, Zeus' chariot was not long lost, quickly returning to them. Still holding her Master against her chest, Saber avoided two more attacks.

Artoria was now in open water and its objective, white cliffs covered with green grass rushed towards them...

She leaped vertically and landed on the land smiling for the first time.

Like many national heroes, Artoria saw her powers amplified if she fought on her home soil.  
King Arthur was back on the island of Britain to fulfill her prophecy.

Artoria put Kishinami behind her. The Master watched Gordius Wheel land nearby, causing dirt clods to gush under its wheels. So Iskandar pointed his sword at the King of the Knights... in a clear challenge. What the King of the Knights could not refuse. Well encamped on her legs, she took her sword with two hands.

Hakuno turned to Artoria:

\- _Noble Phantasm_, now!

The King of the Knights did not argue. Liberated from Invisible Air, the Sword of the Promised Victory waved towards the sky wrapped in golden light... a torch that soon rose to a height of about ten meters, brighter than the sun.

\- **Ex**...

As Zeus's chariot surrounded itself with lightning discharges, the voice of the King of the Conqueror clicked like thunder:

\- Light is at other end of the world- conquer! **Via Expugnatio**!

\- ... **calibur**!

Artoria lowered her sword and the world was wrapped in golden light.

* * *

Cut like a knife, part of the cliff collapsed into the waves. From the sky, one could clearly see the long trench opened by Excalibur. Leonardo B. Harwey was breathless at the sight of the power of the Sacred Sword. So this was the power of the legendary King Arthur ? Victory was assured with... Leo could not continue. On the contrary, he swallowed his saliva as the drone zoomed in on a humanoid climbing the breach... Iskandar! Apart from his ragged coat he did not seem to be injured. However Gordius Wheel had disappeared. Nevertheless, the fight was not over. The British Prime Minister sat down in his chair, keeping his eyes on the screen.

The King of the Conqueror scratched his head. At the other end of the telepathic link that bound him to all his soldiers, Waver Velvet insulted him heartily... and he was right. It was the third time he lost Gordius Wheel in a frontal assault against an enemy Servant... and the second time against King Arthur. "There is a limit to stupidity, you muscle-head! If it doesn't work... don't start over, it's obvious to anyone. But you're too stubborn to think before acting!" Waver swore again. The Macedonian king smiled widely, he had no trouble to imagine his friend offering to all a real pantomime of exasperation.

The expression of the Macedonian king became more neutral as he turned around. Crowned and wearing a long mantle with which the wind played, Artoria Pendargon faced him, her sword brandished... clearly visible and radiant with golden glory.

Iskandar drew his own blade:

\- The time has come to show that your vision of the king is the right one, little girl!

\- Indeed!

The two sovereigns rushed towards each other... In an instant lightning and gusts of wind broke out. They appeared in one place, then to another, their blows exchanged at a supersonic speed.

No normal human could follow the fight... which Hakuno was not:

\- Parry... parry... attack... break... parry... skill!

The girl, with her hands clenched on her chest, did not just follow the fight... she had taken control. Her orders, the result of superior combat expertise between Servants, guided Artoria, allowing her to counter blows and counter-attack at the right time.

The King of the Conquerors had just launched an attack like **Invisible Air: Barrier of the Wind King** threw him to the ground.

The Macedonian recovered with difficulty, bled from several wounds and was visibly exhausted. He looked at his sword with a strange air and then planted it in the ground... before raising his hands with a big smile:

\- I think I lost... but it was a good fight. Uh... you're recruiting, King of the Knights?

Artoria's eyes were reduced to thin cracks:

\- You? At the Round Table? No, thank you...

The tension of the fight was loosening. It all ended with their victory, it was... there was a deaf shock and a geyser of crushed stones and clods of earth rose before them. A crater had suddenly opened... a prostrate shape occupied the bottom... despite its numerous wounds and torn clothing, Hakuno recognized Francis Drake.

Kishinami ran to her Servant, wanting to use a Cast Code to treat her but the Master was caught by Artoria who grabbed her by the waist and jumped back, taking the girl with her.

The reflexes of the King of the Knights had been dazzling. Where the Inheritor of the Moon had stood, a little woman with brown skin and long white hair covered with a veil was now standing. In her hands, she held the Sword of Mars, well recognizable by her tricolored light blade.

\- I'm Altera. Hand me the Regalia!

Artoria interposed herself between the King of the Huns and her Master:

\- Never!

Turning her sword to present its knob to the sky, the Scourge of God did not waste an unnecessary word:  
\- **Teardrop Photon Ray**!

Luminous pentacles appeared in the sky. Alera attacked directly with her _Noble Phantasm_, leaving no chance for Artoria - exhausted by a long battle- to counter-attack. The voice of Iskandar thundered then:  
\- Waver, come on!

* * *

Waver Velvet, Lord El-Melloi II, had been waiting for the opportunity to act since the battle began. At the edge of the magic circle that surrounded a bronze barrel, he proclaimed the last verse of a ritual:  
\- O Ephialtes and Otos, sons of Poseidon and Ephimedia, once again came to imprison Ares. May the revenge of the Aloads be carried out!

Ephialtes and Otos were known for two feats, during the war having opposed the Giants to the Gods, they had piled two mountains on top of each other to reach Olympus. More useful... at least in the context of this war, the Aloads brothers had imprisoned the god of war Ares in a bronze barrel. Now, Mars was the Roman name of the Greek god Ares... and Altera held his sword in her hand and stole his _Noble Phantasm_.

When the ray of light that constituted the attack called **Teardrop Photon Ray** appeared from the pentacles most of the participants were surprised to see the beam bend and leave off... to fall into the bronze barrel of the Aloads.

Waver smiles, proud of him:

\- Never underestimate the power of _Formalcraft_, a good knowledge of mythology and a brain trained to solve complex problems.

* * *

Altera was stunned... which was the most emotional reaction Iskandar had ever seen. She quickly pulled herself together and turned an accusatory glance at the King of the Conqueror:

\- You're a traitor!

The red colossus seemed surprised:

\- Me?... No! I served you because you defeated me.

He pointed a massive finger at Artoria.

\- Having been defeated by the King of the Knights, I am free again.

\- Yet... you had planned to lose.

Iskandar shrugged his shoulders:

\- I don't like Velber, Waver devised this plan and I applied it.

Altera glanced at her sword and turned to see two new Servants appear, Archer and Darius III. They were both in bad shape, but ready to fight if necessary. Her eyes drifted off... the naval battle was over and the Allied fleet was converging on her.

Her sword could no longer serve her...

She had no more allies...

She was surrounded by enemies...

For the first time the glass mask worn by Altera split... the young woman showed an expression of doubt and even terror. Iskandar approached and put a hand on the warrior's shoulder. His voice was sweet... a feat for this thundering giant:

\- It's over, Altera, Velber has lost. This world will not be plundered by this monster.

\- I... I have to fight!

\- Is this the answer of Altera? Or that of Sefar, the White Titan created by Velber to destroy the worlds. Is this your answer or that of Attila, the King of the Huns, and the Scourge of God created by the shamans of this tribe from a fragment of Sefar? You can't forever let others decide who you are and what you want!

Each word of Iskandar had hit right and Altera showed a particularly troubled face. Her violent inner debate was read in her haggard eyes and her crisp features. Hakuno, who had just cured Drake, returned to them. She was the first to react by seeing the woman with bistre skin leap forward, sword brandished:

\- _Cast Code: Hack_!

The King of the Huns cried out in pain as yellow lightning flashed around her. However, the last Master of the Moon Cell was not content to paralyze the enemy Servant. Focused on the Regalia, she gave orders, mouving back-up a stream of energy left by her Digital Spell. Her mind plunged inside Altera...  
Velber's codes were surprisingly similar to those of the Moon Cell... writing in the same computer language. For Hakuno, everything was childlike simplicity. Altera was an artificial being. It was the Heroic Spirit of Attila... and as Iskandar had just revealed, it was created from a fragment of Sefar, the White Titan. Altera therefore inherited a program that could return her to this original form. That program literally put her under the control of the Umbral Star... Although Altera had a personality of her own, she was nothing more or less than a remote-controlled toy.

Supported by all the power of the Moon Cell, Hakuno's spirit fought its own battle against the power of Velber modifying... rewriting... lines of codes... cancelling commands... erasing... The monstrous star of destruction fought back by repairing, replacing, editing.

It was a duel of will.

However, it took place in the body and mind of Altera.

Between the dark entity that sought to repair the chains that forced her to serve, and the cute little Master who sought to free her, she chose the second...

Before losing consciousness, victim of the tension caused by the long struggle in the computer universe, Hakuno saw the black crystal chains formed by myriads of oppressive codes shatter and be scattered into purple particles by a bright light from the depths of Altera's soul.

* * *

(1) There are several Jack the Ripper in the Fateverse (and several Robin Hood by the way) the one Archer thinks is a Berserker that appears in Fate Strange Fake, and not the little girl of Fate Apocrypha.

* * *

**Author's Note: Everything knows an end. And "Chimeric Lunar Sea of Steel" reaches hers. The next episode (a simple epilogue) will be the end of this story. Feel free to comment, this is your last opportunity.  
I'm really surprised that I did so well. Don't forget that I am French and this is the first fiction I have ever written in English. I'd like to thank you all for sharing this little adventure with me.**


	16. End: Chimeric Lunar Sea of Peace

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, all the multiverse knows the Little Squirrel. Yes, Leo is very happy to see the legendary King Arthur in action.****To have Iskandar at the Round Table is to have someone as unstable as Mordred and more arrogant as Lancelot and with less remorse to take what interests him than these two put together. Artoria is not interested in a remake of the Battle of Camlan****n.**** As Waver says: "Do not underestimate the power of Formalcraft and the knowledge of mythology".****The Aloades were able to capture Ares and he was not able to free himself (he needed the help of Hermes).****So by using the Formalcraft to rebuild their bronze barrel, we can capture the power of the sword of Mars.**

**Sawtooth44: I have no response to my requests.**

**Boyzilla: thank for your interest. An all hail Little Squirrel the First !**

* * *

**Chimeric Lunar Sea... of Peace**

_Six months after the Irish Sea Naval Battle_

The world was in the midst of reconstruction...

After years of war between the Fog and humanity... and men among themselves peace had arisen from the arrival of two new actors.

The world had almost disappeared, devoured by an entity of pure greed, _Velber, the Umbral Star_, programmed into forgotten eras, much before the appearance of life on Earth and by an alien race so powerful and so foreign that it matched the beings that men called "gods".

But the Earth had survived thanks to the intervention of a similar creation... although for opposite purposes, the _Moon Cell_.

When such entities so superior to mortals arose in their conflicts, they made them very ridiculous.  
When the last shots were fired and the survivors had discovered that the sky, the wind, the sea and the sun were still there for them... there was a huge rumor, a commotion which rose from each city spreading in the countryside... A cry of liberation.

Huge crowds poured into the streets to celebrate their liberation. _Velber_ had been defeated. The star of destruction would not return for twelve thousand years.

This mixture of euphoria and chaos lasted several days.

Then, gradually... things returned to normal.

I mean, almost...

As ordinary people returned to their daily problems it was to realize that the rise of the waters was continuing that famine was still reigning and that intercontinental communications remained sporadic. The situation remained catastrophic and the forecasts pessimistic.

Of course, after the joy of the first few days, the small world of politicians and financiers had resumed its usual dance around their personal interests. The world almost disappeared? What important? All they cared now was taking advantage of the end of the war against the Fog. It had whole countries plagued by anarchy, islands and archipelagos that no one had heard of for nearly twenty years... and their resources to plunder.

Less than a week after the fighting was over, the entire world's television network was buzzing with squabbles and absurd debates over the "ownership" of territories and resources again available. Of course, the tone was rising and the discussions of the first few days soon became dialogues of the deaf where everyone displayed his arrogance. They barely avoided pretending that _Velber_ had been defeated thanks to them and them alone, but we were not far from it.

It was absolutely heartbreaking.

If the history of humanity had taught us anything, it is that no war, no catastrophe, had ever changed the profoundly selfish nature of men. The strong crushed the weak, plundered their resources and paid lawyers to explain that law was for them.

* * *

No nation escaped completely from this slump.

However, among the distressing news discovered in the television, there was one that first attracted some amused smiles, but which soon eclipsed all the others...

In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords and the House of Commons had been sitting for several days to deal with a problem that had never arisen since the establishment of the Magna Carta (the Great Charter, the foundation of the United Kingdom Constitution):

King Arthur was back.

After much debate, the consensus was:

Not having died (although not living in the strict sense either) and having never abdicated, King Arthur (or Artoria) was still legally king of England! The Saxon kings who had reigned until 1066 were usurpers. The following dynasties: Normans, Plantagenet, Tudors... had just ruled the throne in the absence of the legitimate king.

Prime Minister Harwey proposed a referendum to the people of the United Kingdom. Could King Arthur take back the throne? In a democracy, after all, it was appropriate for the people to decide an issue of this importance. Officially, Leonard B. Harwey remained neutral... but the images of Artoria's fight against Iskandar "inadvertently fled" to the public media.

On the one hand, a king who had little interest in the press because of his private misfortunes, on the other, the legendary King Arthur with Excalibur.

Two months after Velber's defeat, Artoria Pendragon was sworn in before the House of Lords, confirmed in her royal duty by 98% of the population of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  
This may seem secondary, but the King of England was also sovereign of a total of sixteen kingdoms and empires (including Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand). He was also the theoretical leader of the fifty-two Commonwealth states.

This was a collection of symbolic and dusty titles back from the British Empire era.

However, the swearing-in of King Arthur was seen all over the world in an explosion of joy... and also a little concern.

Because some remembered that the United Kingdom had allied itself with the Fog and that the Scarlet Fleet (the Fog fleet in Europe) had received British crews.

In the months that followed, most corrupt and businessman politicians of all kinds learned to fear Artoria.  
Custom had made the King of England a mere puppet who only read speeches written for him by the parliament? No one could turn King Arthur into a Yes-man, and everyone realized it very quickly... especially since the Prime Minister, the government, and the citizens supported her.

Moreover, Artoria Pendragon did not hesitate to affirm that any king of England she was, she remained a human king. All rulers of the world had to remember that the power of the Moon Cell was unparalleled... and that its Sovereign was on Earth.

As feudal monarch, Artoria was also well placed to understand that between a theoretical right and its actual exercise, the difference was one thing: military power.

* * *

When the first commercial and fishing vessels began to sail timidly, they faced a renewal of piracy. A fleeting returns of piracy... because the fleets of the Fog commanded by Admiral Francis Drake soon made the profession too risky. The fact that Drake was a pirate herself made it even more ironic.

And when disputes between nations degenerated into war, the interposition of Servants as powerful as Altera, Iskandar or Darius III made confrontation impossible. Very soon, the states turned to more peaceful means... these three having a certain talent to calm the most fanatical bellicists... especially Darius III. When the Berserker summoned his legions of the living dead... the soldiers who were in front ran away!

* * *

As the use of violence became impossible, politicians and businessmen then endeavored to use their skills to manipulate the media and the courts to win their case. They were at their expense. Hakuno Kishinami had soon provided evidence of their machinations, delivered by their own computers. Above all, the Inheritor of the Moon intervened everywhere to help people in distress, depriving them of their support. The futuristic technology of the Fog allowed curbing the disasters caused by pollution while advances in synthetic food put an end to famines. The progress of cloning technology during the war was used to prevent the extinction of several endangered species. Above all, a cordon of constructions appeared on what remained of the ice floes on both poles, to cool the waters and put an end to the flood. We owe them to the Moon Cell; they literally appeared from nothing, demonstrating once again the incredible ability of the extraterrestrial supercomputer to distort reality. This was the most spectacular intervention of the Holy Grail, but not the only one. In fact, wherever the wearer of the Regalia encountered intractable problems, all she had to do was appeal to the colossus of photonic crystals to make the impossible possible.  
Twelve thousand years after the end of the age of the gods, humanity knew again an age of miracles.

* * *

Caernafon is a city in the north-west of Wales. Four months earlier, King Arthur recognized it as the site of the legendary Camelot and decided to settle there. Since then, a second castle stood near the small town. Unlike the fortifications of the thirteenth century, the work of King Edward I, the second had been built in one day... yet it surpassed in size and splendor. A veritable forest of pepper towers crowned with multiple standards blew in the wind over numerous ramparts defended by Effigy.

At the foot of the walls, a small port welcomed the MN _Surcouf_.

The castle could easily have accommodated ten thousand people, but only a few dozen humans and _Heroic Spirits_ lived there permanently. In addition to a banquet room and a council room, there was also a throne room with a replica of the famous Round Table.

\- This is ridiculous!

The one who had just spoken was a teenager with long brown hair and huge liquid eyes. She wore a brown school uniform. Embarrassed, she blushed and turned her head to escape her Servant.

Artoria Pendragon stood next to her, holding a crown.

\- Master, I do not understand your insistence on refusing to take what is rightfully yours. You are legitimately the ruler of the earth as the ruler of the moon.

\- But... I never asked to become queen!

Artoria looked at her and narrowed her eyes:

\- Most kings are born kings and are educated as such, others must conquer their throne. These by the grace of their efforts deserve even more their position. In any case, your personal opinion as such is hardly relevant. Who feeds the people of the world and protects them from invaders except you, my Master? You are in fact occupying this position. You must exercise it as your title. A king is at the service of the people of his kingdom and must meet their expectations.

Hakuno turned to a Servant in red stooped in an armchair:

\- Archer!

The tone was supplicating but Nameless simply crossed hands and smiled ironically:

\- I suppose I am partly responsible. I still remember our first meeting... of that pitiful Master who survived the Moon Cell Holy Grail War playoffs by my one pity. I pushed you to train to improve your weak talents... and now look at you!

A little anger passed into Kishinami's eyes:

\- I'm asking for help, not compliments.

He spread his arms wide and winked, without ceasing to show his irritating smile:

\- Reap what you sow!

Hakuno swept the room with her eyes, seeking help, but...

Iskandar shrugged her broad shoulders: "Bravo petite, empress of the world? It is you who deserves the title of "Queen of the conqueror"!

Drake stopped counting the Spanish doubloons that formed her last payment. She laughed frankly: "Sacred booty, Girlie, the whole planet".

Darius content himself with roaring... but at the same time what could be expected of a Berserker?  
\- Master!

Kishinami turned to the Servant hanging on her arm. Since she had saved her, Altera hardly left her side... moreover, she seemed unable to stop hugging her. It was very sweet, adorable even... but it was also boring in the long run.

\- Master!

\- Yes, Altera, yes?

\- Master will be a very great queen.

Hakuno sighed with the air of someone who had to swallow slug soup... She took a look at the Regalia. Maybe she could ask the Moon Cell to reincarnate her far, far away... in a place where no one would call her Sovereign or Queen of Earth!

* * *

**END**

* * *

**Author note: It's the end! It's sad. On the other hand, I'm glad it's over.** **My feelings are very ambivalent.** **I wrote a short story because I wanted to be able to put the word "end", rather than try a huge project and not finish it.**

**Some of you have already figured that out, but I've already started another project with Hakuno. ****You will find her confronting the creatures of the Myth of Chtulhu in "Fate/ Extra: Music of the Spheres". Are the creatures of the Myth immune to her Utimate Noble Phantasm : Head Tilt EX Rank?**


End file.
